Stocks once again closed at record-high levels on Monday, as investors showed optimism over a long-awaited tax bill that is inching closer to passing.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite briefly topped the 7,000-point mark for the first time in mid-day trading on Monday before closing slightly under that milestone. The Nasdaq saw the largest percentage gain on Monday (0.8%, or 58 points) among the three major indices, with streaming device company Roku (up more than 7%) and snack company Snyder’s-Lance (up 7% on news of a sale to Campbell Soup) among the notable Nasdaq stocks that saw gains today.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 improved by roughly 14 points, or 0.5%, to finish at its own record high of 2,690. And, the Dow Jones Industrial Average also posted yet another record finish, gaining 140 points on Monday and improving almost 0.6% to close at 24,792. As the blue-chip index sets its sights on the 25,000-point mark, the Dow Jones’ Monday record finish actually counted as two records. Monday marked the Dow’s 70th record close of 2017, which itself tops the index’s previous record of 69, set in 1995. That’s according to MarketWatch, which also points out that the Dow posted at least one record close in each of the past five years, including 52 new record days in 2013.
U.S. stocks have soared this year, in part, in response to the Trump administration’s corporate-friendly push for deregulation, while investors are also optimistic that the impending passage of a tax bill will also help lift corporate earnings. The Dow is up more than 23% over the past year. (However, Fortune‘s Shawn Tully recently warned investors that soaring corporate profits and the stock market’s boom could soon suffer a correction.)
