Topline
The S&P 500 just crossed 6,000 for the first time in its near seven-decade history, a new milestone for the benchmark American stock index as this week’s post-election gains added to what was already a historic start to 2024 for equities.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday/.
Getty Images
Key Facts
The S&P hit as high as 6,012.45 by mid-afternoon Friday, closing at a record 5,995.54.
The day’s 0.4% rally sent this week’s rally to 4.7% (the sharpest weekly gain since November 2023), a rally sparked by the election of former President Donald Trump to a second term, as Wall Street prepares for a Republican-led federal government’s corporate tax cuts and less hawkish regulatory environment.
Driving the market capitalization-weighted S&P’s rally Friday were electric vehicle maker Tesla, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and enterprise software firm Salesforce, as shares of each company rose at least 3.5%.
Big Number
25.7%. That’s how much the S&P is up this year, excluding dividends, which would be the index’s fifth-best year since the turn of the millennium. That’s just above 2023’s robust 24.2% gain and puts it within striking distance of 2013’s 29.6%, 2019’s 28.9%, 2021’s 26.9% and 2003’s 26.4%.
Key Background
The S&P first broke 1,000 in 1998, 2,000 in 2014, 3,000 in 2019, 4,000 in 2021 and 5,000 in February. The index has tracked a rotating crop of 500 of the largest American public companies since 1957. Gains for American equities were already strong before the election this year, as the S&P’s more than 20% gain through September was the best first nine-month performance since 1997. Tesla’s roughly 25% gain this week makes it easily the biggest winner of any S&P company valued at more than $200 billion, though other titans like Amazon, Nvidia and JPMorgan Chase all enjoyed more than 5% rallies.
