Wednesday's Stock Market Close: Dow Sets Record, Helped By Disney, Powell Comments

The Dow Jones Industrial Average set a record Wednesday on testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s assurance he saw little reason to cut interest rates in the near term.

The Dow finished up 92 points to close at a record 27,783. The S&P 500, by contrast added just 2 points to close at 3,094 while the Nasdaq Composit gave up nearly 4 points to finish at 8,482.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 2.8 billion shares with 1,361 issues advancing, 73 setting new highs, and 1,602 declining, with 69 setting new lows.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Energy Transfer (ET) and General Electric (GE) led the most actives, followed by Disney (DIS), which launched its streaming service Tuesday, gaining 10 million users out of the gate, and added 7% to its share price.

Powell testified before the Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill saying he foresees moderate economic growth, a strong labor market and stable inflation.

The Fed cut its benchmark federal funds rate to 1.5% to 1.75% at its October meeting in its third 25-basis point rate cut of the year.

The comments came a day after President Trump once again berated the Fed for not dropping rates into the negative range, which he said would put the United States on a par with other countries.

“The very, very low and even negative rates that we see around the world would not be appropriate for our economy,” Powell said under questioning by lawmakers. Powell stressed, however, Fed policy isn’t set in stone and the central bank would respond if the situation changes.

Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, pushing the annual rate to 1.8%, just shy of the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Energy prices were up 2.7%, with gasoline up 3.7%. Food prices rose 0.2%. Without energy and food prices, consumer prices rose 0.2%, up a tick over September.

Optimism for a phase 1 trade deal in the near future was waning on tariff issues and Chinese imports of agricultural products. Trump said Tuesday the Chinese want a trade deal more than he does, and he has no intention of signing an agreement he doesn’t like. A new round of tariffs was scheduled to kick in Dec. 15.

Global markets were lower

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 1.82% lower while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was off 0.85% and China’s Shanghai Composite dipped 0.33%. Australia’s S&P/ASX was off 0.81%.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 closed off 0.19% while the German DAX gave up 0.4% and the French CAC 40 lost 0.21%. The Stoxx Europe 600 decreased 0.26%.

On currency markets, the British pound was up 0.05% to $1.285 while the euro dipped a like amount to $1.1005.

Oil futures were higher. Crude oil was up 0.77% to $57.24 a barrel while Brent crude added 0.22% to $62.51 a barrel. Gold futures gained 0.7% to $1.463.90 an ounce. Silver futures added 1.28% to $16.90 an ounce.

Yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.889% while yield on the 30-year note fell to 2.368%.