Stocks just keep climbing higher, with the S&P 500 hitting a 45th record closing peak Friday at 5,815.
Strong earnings, resilient economic growth, falling inflation, and anticipation of more Federal Reserve interest rate cuts have sent the market higher.
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As for profits, analysts project S&P 500 earnings rose 4.1% in the third quarter, according to FactSet. While that’s down from 11.3% in the second quarter, it’s still a buoyant number.
Looking at the economy, it grew an annualized 3% in the second quarter. And the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank’s forecasting model calls for 3.2% in the third quarter.
Equity bulls were heartened by the September jobs report, which showed that non-farm payrolls rose 254,000 in September, up from 159,000 in August. And the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1% from 4.2%.
After the jobs data, “markets can have confidence to maintain their recent euphoria and continue broadening out,” beyond mega-cap technology stocks, Lara Castleton, U.S. head of portfolio construction and strategy at Janus Henderson, wrote in a commentary.
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