Wall Street continues to climb higher as healthcare and financials lead
- Healthcare records robust gains on Wednesday.
- Energy and technology lose traction.
- Financials boost the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day at all-time highs on Tuesday and were able to hold on to daily gains with sharp increases seen in financial and healthcare sectors outweighing losses in energy and information technology sectors.
Led by robust gains witnessed in Gilead and Boston Scientific shares, the S&P 500 Health Care Sector (SPXHC) became the best performing sector of the day as it closed 1.1% higher. Furthermore, the rate-sensitive the S&P 500 Financials Sector (SPSY) rose 0.7% while sectors that are forecasted to be impacted negatively by rate hikes such as utilities and real estate underperformed. Commenting on today's trading action, “While investor sentiment continues to be high and confidence is high, there’s still some caution from investors. Where do you position yourself if wage growth pushes up inflation? It becomes a question of how much longer can this go, how much higher,” Jeffrey Carbone, managing partner at Cornerstone Wealth in Huntersville, North Carolina, told Reuters.
On the other hand, yesterday's top gainers, the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector (SPLRCT) and the S&P 500 Energy Sector (SPNY), lost their momentum and dropped 0.26% and 0.32% respectively as investors took some of their recent profits off the table.
At the end of the day, the financial-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 104.76 points, or 0.41%, at 25,387.76, the S&P 500 added 3.77 points, or 0.14%, at 2,751.48 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 6.4 points, or 0.09%, at 7,163.79.
Author
Eren Sengezer
FXStreet
As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.
