Stocks Exploded in The First Trading Day of 2020

The Dow kicked off the brand new year by soaring 300 points, extending the big rally seen in 2019.

Stocks hit all-time highs on Thursday, led mostly by tech companies. Advanced Micro Devices was up by 7.1%, Taiwan Semiconductor and Micron Technology saw gains of over 3%, while KLA and Intel rose by 2.5% and 1.7%, respectively. Apple was among the best-performing Dow stocks and gained 2.3%, hitting $300 per share for the first time.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a gain of 330.36 points, or 0.9% to 28,868.80. This was the index’s biggest one-day gain since December 6th.

The S&P 500 closed 0.8% higher to hit 3,257.85, which was its best performance since Dec. 12th.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3% to end at 9,092.19 and had is best day since Oct. 11th.

The S&P 500 rose 28.9% in 2019 while the Dow climbed 22.3% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 35%.

“We’re starting the year off on the sunny side,” remarked Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities. “Besides the geopolitical tensions, the focus remains on the macro news which has been consistent and points to growth ahead.”

“Equities begin [2020] on firm ground building on the momentum from last year,” said Gregory Faranello, head of U.S. rates at AmeriVet Securities. He did however say that “it’s hard to imagine 2020 offering the same type of returns of last year.”