S&P 500 closes above 5,500 as record-breaking run continues; Nasdaq ends at record high – CNBC TV18

The S&P 500 made its 32nd record high of 2024 on Tuesday as the record-breaking run on Wall Street continued on Tuesday. The index closed above the mark of 5,500 for the first time. The 30-stock Dow Jones too added 0.4% on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq continued to outperform, closing 0.8% higher and above the mark of 18,000 for the first time.

The S&P 500 has added $16 trillion in the current rally that began from the lows of October 2022. Equities have continued to surge higher on Wall Street despite growing concerns that the narrow concentration of the rally is not sustainable for long. Whether the Fed will start cutting rates or not continues to be another lingering question.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell did briefly allude to that at a central bank forum on Tuesday, saying that the US Federal Reserve has made some progress in reducing inflation but it is not quite ready to lower rates yet. Powell’s remarks had no impact on the market whatsoever.

Scott Chronert, head of US equity strategy at Citi Research said that a pullback may be imminent in the coming months as the street prices in lofty growth expectations, that may be difficult to achieve for companies.

“Combine that with strong flows into the mega cap growth tech and core arena and a euphoric sentiment read — all suggest to us that we do have to be prepared for a pullback at some point as the summer unfolds,” Chronert told CNBC on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 will surge to new peaks by the end of the year as economic strength outweighs market risks, according to Lori Calvasina at RBC Capital Markets. She raised her year-end target to 5,700 from 5,300 — among the highest on Wall Street — despite the fact that the market has “gotten a bit ahead of itself.”

This is supposed to be a holiday-shortened week on Wall Street with trading set to close early on Wednesday, followed by the Independence Day holiday on Thursday. Ahead of the truncated session, there are several data points lined up for release, including ADP’s private payrolls data for June, and the weekly jobless claims figures, which will be released a day earlier instead of the usual Thursday release.

Trade deficit for the month of May along with the global services PMI and non-manufacturing PMI for June are also due for release. A big data point though will be minutes of the most recent FOMC meeting, which are also scheduled for release later on Wednesday.

(With Inputs From Agencies.)