Wall Street continues its 2019 recovery advance

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA,  added 121 points, or 0.5%, at around 24,000.
• The S&P 500 added 11.68 points, or 0.5%, to 2,596.64.
• The Nasdaq Composite Index added 28.99 points, or 0.4%, to 6,986.07.

Wall Street benchmarks ended higher again on Thursday, adding to the consecutive daily gains as investors continue to be optimistic over prospects for a Sino/US solution to the trade dispute while also riding the sentiment surrounding the Fed.

DJIA and S&P 500 registered their fifth straight gain as investors cheered the optimism over the US economy from Fed’s Powell when he was speaking at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. today while also stressing that the central bank can be patient and flexible on monetary policy.  The top performers in the Dow were Boeing Co, +8.87 points or adding 2.55%, ahead of Caterpillar Inc that added 2.69 points or 2.06% and Travelers Cos Inc that added 1.59 points or 1.34%. The worst three were Pfizer Inc that dropped 1.03 points of 2.38%, Merck & Co.Inc. -0.93 or -1.23% and Microsoft Corp that lost 0.67 or 0.64%. 

DJIA levels

The DJIA has now climbed 10.1% from its Dec. 24 low and needed to finish at or above 23,971.42 to emerge from its correction by that measure. Technically, the bulls are back in the game, dusting off the warnings from the prior daily bearish close marked by the upper shadow on the candlestick and have battled the bears off for a bullish close on Thursday above the pivot. The 50% retracement Fibo of Dec’s decline at 23765 is now back in the bull’s sights with a close above the last swing low printed on the 9th Dec. Both daily MACD and RSI continue to drift higher.