Wall Street wraps up the first quarter with concrete gains
Despite edging lower on Friday, major stock indexes in the United States wrapped up the first quarter with solid gains after hitting a series of record highs following Donald Trump's election victory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day 0.31% lower at 20,663.22 points, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.61 points or 0.04% to 5,911.74 and the S&P 500 fell 0.24% to 2,358.75.
Heightened expectations of pro-growth policies such as tax cuts, deregulation, and infrastructure spending under the new administration coupled with robust economic data pushed the indexes to record levels during the first three months of the year. The S&P 500 ended the quarter 5.8% higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 4.9%, it's biggest first-quarter gains in four years. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also had its best quarterly performance since the end of 2013.
However, the second quarter is poised to be cloudy for the investors as the cheerfulness started to fade away following Trump's failure to dismantle the Obamacare. “The Trump bump is taking on a new meaning as reflation optimism has given way to a more considered assessment of what the U.S. President can achieve,” analysts at ING Groep NV, led by Mark Cliffe, wrote in a note. “Politics often gives way to economics, and Trump and the markets are discovering this the hard way. The only thing that is clear is the lack of clarity”, as per Bloomberg reports.
Headlines from the U.S. session
- US dollar index rebounds from 4-month lows, ends week sharply higher
- US: Personal income shows solid gains, inflation rising - Wells Fargo
- European stocks close the quarter with strong earnings
- Fed's Bullard: Would back more rate hikes if inflation threatened to go significantly higher
- NY Fed Nowcast: GDP growth 2.9% for 2017:Q1 and 2.6% for 2017:Q2
- Fed's Kashkari: Congress' actions on taxes, healthcare, trade, will factor into Fed's rate decisions