Posted on 02/09/17
| News Source: CNBC
U.S. equities rallied on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he would give an announcement regarding taxes in the next few weeks.
"Lowering the overall tax burden on American business is big league ... that's coming along very well. We're way ahead of schedule, I believe. And we're going to announce something I would say over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax," Trump said in a meeting with U.S. airline executives.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose around 115 points to a record, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains.
"It's almost a resumption of the Trump trade," said Matt Weller, senior market analyst at Faraday Research. "In his acceptance speech, Trump talked about infrastructure and deregulation, but in recent weeks he'd gotten away from that."
"This is sort of reigniting those animal spirits," he said.
The S&P 500 advanced about 0.6 percent, with financials rising 1.4 percent, hitting a new all-time high. The Nasdaq composite also hit a fresh all-time high, rising 0.6 percent.
"I think it's a combination of investors feeling more confident that some tax package will get worked on. But I think that we also have lower interest rates recently and solid earnings," said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones.
However, "just because he says there will be an announcement doesn't mean he will agree with Congress," said Jeremy Klein, chief market strategist at FBN Securities. "It's very low volume. It's pretty quiet and there is a very persistent buyer out there pushing the market higher."
Equities rose broadly following Trump's election, but have mostly traded sideways this year as investors look for clues about the administration's plans on corporate tax cuts, deregulation and government spending.