Dow, S&P 500 rise to record highs as Senate passes infrastructure bill

Dow, S&P 500 rise to record highs as Senate passes infrastructure bill

AIR

On Wall Street, The blue-chip Dow and the benchmark S&P 500 rose to record highs yesterday, buoyed by gains in economically sensitive value stocks after the Senate passed a 1 trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure package.

The bill, which now heads to the House of Representatives, could provide the nation’s biggest investment in decades in roads, bridges, airports and waterways. Senators also began voting on a follow-up 3.5 trillion dollar spending package that Democrats plan to pass without Republican votes.

Energy, industrials and materials which stand to benefit from an economic recovery, were the top performing sectors.

So, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 163 points, or 0.5 percent, to end at 35,265. The S&P 500 gained 4 points, to close at 4,437. But the Nasdaq Composite dropped 72 points, to 14,788.

With new coronavirus cases rising in the United States, progress on the infrastructure package should support the recovery in the world’s largest economy.

The rapid spread of the Delta variant has pushed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to a six-month high, with cases averaging 100,000 for three days in a row.

Investor will also watch inflation numbers this week for more insight into the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy plans, in the wake of comments from two Fed officials on Monday that inflation was already at a level that could satisfy one portion of the requirement for the beginning of rate hikes.