NYSE: Dow Tops 21000 for First Time

Wall Street notched another set of milestones Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high for the 12th consecutive time, the longest winning streak for the 30-company average in 30 years.

The VIX Volatility Index was higher for the day at 12.84 for a gain of 0.75 points or 6.20%.

Meanwhile, the proposed 29 billion euro merger between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse to create Europe’s biggest stock exchange looked dead in the water due an inability to meet European antitrust demands. Goldman Sachs comprises about 7.9% of the fund, and is now winning due to the Trump rally (up about 30% since the election).

However, Trump also said that any details on tax reform would not be revealed until after the administration’s proposal on healthcare. Robert Weidner, president and CEO of the Illinois-based Metals Service Center Institute said in a statement that a resurgence of economic growth will be achieved – if the president works with Congress to act on his agenda of infrastructure and energy investment, education and comprehensive tax reform, and stronger trade enforcement. “There is real economic improvement now that has sparked much of the rally”.

Now that we have talked about DIA, we can now move to sector specific ETFs that may stand to benefit from the rally of individual DOW stocks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also rose roughly 1.4 percent each. The two indexes also closed at records.

“The market has shifted from being anxious about lower growth for longer, to expecting more growth sooner rather than later”, said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Cornerstone Financial Partners.

“It seems to us that the markets are too optimistic, looking from the glass half full perspective and not pricing enough of the negatives”, Matys noted.

However, it appears there is increased certainty in the market as optimism about the future of the United States economy grows, and the possibility of an interest rate hike appears not to have dampened such optimism. It is well known that Wall Street largely expected Trump’s victory to trigger an unprecedented level of volatility and uncertainty that could lead to a stock market crash. Investors sold off government bonds and sent the yield on the 10-year Treasury from 2.35% to 2.46%.

The S&P 500 Index declined 0.3 percent Monday, paring the best monthly gain since March to 3.7 percent. Bank of America rose 3.4 percent and Morgan Stanley added 2.9 percent. Higher interest rates tend to boost the profitability of banks’ lending activities. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news. Fed minutes from the January-February meeting said another rate hike would come “fairly soon”. Yellen is scheduled to speak Friday. Utilities stocks eked out a gain.

In Asia, a weakening yen helped Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average close up 1.4 percent.

Strategists said the comments offered little in the way of new details for investors, but said some may be relieved that it did not bring any negative surprises and at least underscored his pro-growth stance.

In addition, USA stocks are more expensive than their historical averages by some measures. The S&P is up about 10.5 percent since the November 8 election.

NO SALE: Fiesta Restaurant Group tumbled 24.2 percent after the operator of the Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana restaurant chains said it doesn’t plan to sell itself.