Dow Smashes Through 35,000 Points

The stocks rally fuelled by the pandemic recovery continued on Monday when the Dow breached the 35,000 points level

London, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2021 ) :The stocks rally fuelled by the pandemic recovery continued on Monday when the Dow breached the 35,000 points level.

Iron ore and copper hit historic peaks on demand optimism as economies reopen.

Analysts put the rise in the Dow down to investors being reassured that the US Federal Reserve won't be forced into quickly reducing stimulus and hiking interest rates by a strong rebound in the economy.

"Picking up where it left off last Friday, when a disappointing nonfarm jobs report seemed to ease concerns that the Fed would start tapering stimulus sooner rather than later, the Dow added another 245 points, propelling it above 35,000 for the first time," said Connor Campbell at Spreadex.

"That's a 4,400-point gain in the space of less than four and a half months," he added.

The Friday report showed that the US economy added only 266,000 jobs in April, far short of expectations of perhaps one million positions.

Commodities also charged higher Monday in part owing to Dollar weakness, which makes raw materials priced in the Currency cheaper for buyers using rival units.

"Commodities are powering higher on Monday, supported not only by the weaker US dollar but also by reopening optimism and hope of large-scale infrastructure spending in both US and China," said OANDA analyst Sophie Griffiths.

"China's benchmark iron ore rallied ... to a record high, and copper also reached a fresh record high." Iron ore forged new highs above $220 a tonne, while copper struck an all-time peak at $10,747.50 per tonne -- having already hit records last week.

Meanwhile, after initially rising after a vital US pipeline was put out of action by a cyber attack, oil prices turned lower.

The weekend attack hit the Colonial Pipeline Company, the largest in the United States and which ships gasoline and jet fuel from Texas to the East Coast, serving 50 million consumers.

Elsewhere, Europe's main stock markets ended little changed, while Asian equities finished mixed.

The pound shot more than one percent higher against its main rivals after the Scottish National Party fell short of an outright majority in UK regional elections.

That result is "leading most analysts to predict that London will be able to delay a new Scottish independence referendum for at least a few years, reducing the near-term risk of a break-up of the UK and the detrimental impact such an outcome is likely to have on the value of the currency," said ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista.

- Key figures around 1530 GMT - New York - Dow: UP 0.9 percent at 35,073.32 EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,025.44 London - FTSE 100: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 7,123.68 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: FLAT at 15,400.41 (close) Paris - CAC 40: FLAT at 6,385.99 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent at 29,518.34 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 28,595.66 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,427.99 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.2161 from $1.2166 at 2100 GMT Pound/dollar: UP at $1.4137 from $1.3984 Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.02 pence from 86.99 pence Dollar/yen: UP at 108.74 Yen from 108.60 yenBrent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $68.14 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $64.70 per barrel