Dow rises a record 1,050 points, as US stocks stage a massive Boxing Day rebound after pre-holiday punishment
- Major US markets soar 5 per cent, after enduring a bruising December
- It was one of the biggest single-day rallies of the decade-long bull market
US stocks rebounded on Wednesday, staging one of the biggest rallies of the decade after coming within points of seeing the bull market end, with major indexes surging about 5 per cent and the Dow registering its biggest one-day point increase ever.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 1,050 points (4.98 per cent), and all but one member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 advanced, pushing that index up by 4.96 per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied 5.84 per cent.
Each index’s percentage gain was the best since 2009, the year the longest bull market on record began. Consumer shares paced the rally, with Amazon jumping 9.5 per cent after reporting record holiday sales. Energy producers surged as crude oil powered past US$46 a barrel, an increase of almost 10 per cent.
The surge pulled the S&P back from the edge of a bear market — defined as a decline of 20 percent from its peak — though 2018 is still shaping up to be the index’s worst year since the financial crisis of a decade ago.
US President Donald Trump said a day earlier that the rout that took stocks down provided a “tremendous opportunity to buy.” Investors also welcomed the assurance by Kevin Hassett, the chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, that Jerome Powell’s job as head of the Federal Reserve was “100 per cent” safe. Oil’s best rally since 2016 added to the equity surge.