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S&P 500’s new-high streak best in 20 years

Wall Street apparently got the message that records are meant to be broken.

The record-setting Standard & Poor’s 500 stock market on Thursday notched its sixth record close in a row — a feat last accomplished 20 years ago. For those keeping count, the large-company stock index has now set 43 new highs in 2017. The higher highs — the definition of a bull market — add up to a 14% gain.

“The bull has more Energizer batteries than Home Depot,” quipped Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The S&P 500 goes for record close No. 7 Friday. The last time the index put together that many records was June 1997, when it posted eight in a row, Silverblatt said. If the benchmark index many money managers are measured against is to break the record for most consecutive record closes set in 1929, it would have to make it to 11.

Powering stocks higher has been very supportive business conditions and rising hopes for income tax cuts from the Trump administration, Silverblatt says.

Investors are betting on better days ahead, despite a recovery that’s more than eight years old. Rising confidence among consumers, small businesses, CEOs and manufacturers is playing a key role, says Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird.

“Confidence always precedes growth,” he says, noting that Wall Street is pricing in a pro-business agenda under President Trump.