As the New Year beckons, the Dow Jones presented traders with an early Christmas present last night, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 12,416.76, a new all time high.
The index finished the day 99.26 points, or 0.8 percent up. It was 74 points up on the previous high set on the 1st November, an impressive 69 points up on the high set on January 14th 2000, and more than 1500 points up on the start of year level.
Good news from the banking and technology sector, plus news that US unemployment figures had improved, were behind today’s rises.
But the December party on Wall Street was not quite so joyous when applied to the NASDAQ. It finished the day 12 points below its 2006 peak, but given the NASDAQ once stood at 5132 (that was back on March 10th 2000), it isn’t even half the all time high level.
Then there’s the FTSE 100. - While the Dow has been busy setting new records- the FTSE 100 still languishes way behind the record it set on the last day of the last millennium. Back then the index closed at 6930. In the Autumn, when it passed its five and half year high, it seemed as if the index could rise, phoenix like, past that record set during the heady days of the dot com boom. But instead, since then it’s been rather dull. Sure, last night’s close was only little more than 20 points short of the year high set in late November, but it remains 702 points below that 2000 record.
Alas, unless Santa can bring London’s traders a present to remember for years- it seems inevitable that the time frame between record highs will stretch beyond seven years.
Can 2007 do better?
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