Yet another round of record closing highs for the both the S&P500 and Nasdaq as investors digested positive news on the US-China trade front and eyed the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium on monetary policy which kicks off tonight AEST - Dow up +83-points or +0.30% to 28,331.92 and is now just 1.02% shy of turning positive for the year and just 4.1% below its 12 February record closing high of 29,551.41. The broader S&P500 gained +1.02% to 3,478.73 and locking in its 18th record closing high for the year. The latest gains left the S&P 500 up more than 58% since hitting an intraday low on 23 March. Salesforce.com Inc surged +26.04% after the cloud-based customer-relationship-management company announced quarterly results after the closing bell of the previous session that topped forecasts as its revenues hit US$5B for the first time. The company also was benefiting from Monday’s (24 August) announcement by S&P Dow Jones Indices that it would be among a trio of companies to be included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, effective Monday (31 August). The technology-centric NASDAQ +1.74% to 11,665.06 and marking its 39th record closing high of 2020. Netflix Inc rose +11.61% to US$547.53 on big volume (20.1M shares versus its 50-day average volume of 7.3M) and near its highest level since 13 July (US$575.37). Facebook Inc rose +8.22% (to US$303.91), closing above >US$300 per share for the first time. Tesla Inc rose +6.42% (and saw its market capitalisation top >US$400B), buoyed by analysts at Jefferies lifting their target price to US$2,500 from US$1,200. Analysts noted that "Tesla's competitive edge in cars may soon start to shrink but continues to widen in multiple other dimensions, from brand leverage and software to battery capacity and industrial efficiency" and also pointed to the company’s Battery Day on 22 September, where the company could “set new benchmarks and ambitions for battery density, materials and industrial processes leading to pack costs <$100 in coming years." Tesla’s five-for-one stock split becomes effective after the close of trading on Friday (28 August). The small-capitalisation Russell 2000 declined -0.7% to 1,560.19.
