The S&P 500 closed at a record high as investors resumed buying stocks heavily in recent days after a brief dip at the start of the new year.

The historical index rose 58.87 points or 1.23% to close at 4839.81 points, surpassing the intraday high of 4818.62 points in January 2022 and the closing record of 4796.56 points.

At the same time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 395.19 points or 1.05% to close at 37863.8 points. The Nasdaq rose 255.32 points, or 1.7%, to 15,310.97 points. The smaller, technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index rose 1.95%, also hitting a record high.

All three major stock indexes are rising in 2024, with all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising.

After falling 19% in 2022, the S&P 500 index surged 24% in 2023 as the economy emerged from the recession many expected and inflation fell back to levels that would allow the Federal Reserve to pause raising interest rates.

After a strong rebound in the fourth quarter, the S&P 500 index was close to a record high, but ultimately failed to reach its target. At the beginning of 2024, the market rally paused slightly as investors took profits from large technology leaders such as Apple.

But in recent days they have started buying these technology leaders again. The milestone on the 19th confirmed that U.S. stocks have officially entered the bull market starting in October 2022, and not just a bear market rebound. The S&P 500 has gained more than 35% since its lows.

Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management, said, “From the perspective of investors, companies that are leading in artificial intelligence or have differentiated products in technology are in a very, very strong position in the market. leading position. This wave lasted from the end of last year to 2024.”

Technology stocks rose 2.35%, rising more than 4% for the week, becoming the best-performing stock on the S&P 500 this week.

Stuckey said whether the S&P 500 can maintain growth momentum in 2024 “will be a question of whether the Fed can achieve a soft landing.” He pointed out that the driving force for the growth of the S&P 2023 is related to the price-to-earnings ratio rather than profits.

“The economic slowdown has caused the price-to-earnings ratio to rise because investors are betting on recovery. If it does not materialize, then one has to question not only The possibility of maintaining new highs and making new highs.”

The latest consumer data shows consumers are increasingly confident about the economy and inflation. The University of Michigan’s consumer survey shows that confidence increased by 21.4% year-on-year, reaching the highest level since July 2021.

Insurance company Travelers reported better-than-expected profits, sending its shares up 6.72%. Schlumberger (Schlumberger) revenue and profit exceeded expectations, and its stock price rose 2.22%; Ally Financial surged 10.71% after strong performance last quarter and selling the business unit to Synchrony Financial.

After the S&P 500 jumped to a new all-time high, Bitcoin and Ethereum followed suit. After falling back to the key support level of 40,000 yuan on the 18th, the price of Bitcoin rose 2% to 41,763.87 yuan. Ethereum rose 2% to 2,491.82 yuan.

Ryan Rasmussen, an analyst at Bitwise Asset Management, said: “Positive consumer confidence and slowing inflation are driving risk assets higher.” “Investors generally view cryptocurrency investment as similar to technology and venture capital, so crypto It makes sense for currencies to ride on the momentum.”

But Bitcoin is still down 4% this week. Since the Bitcoin ETF was approved to begin trading in the United States on January 10, the cryptocurrency has fallen 10%. The ETF approval was widely expected to be a sell-off news event. Ethereum is down 3% this week.

However, the moves in crypto assets were not enough to boost stocks. Coinbase, Microstrategy and several mining stocks including CleanSpark, Iris Energy and Riot Platforms were unchanged. Marathon Digital rose 0.37%.

The S&P 500 index closed at its highest level since January 3, 2022. At the same time, many funds that focus on specific sectors have also seen significant gains.

FactSet data shows that the best-performing non-leveraged equity ETFs since the index’s last all-time high have been a combination of international funds and energy stocks.

The iShares MSCI Türkiye ETF is up nearly 80% during this period. The Invesco Oil & Gas Services ETF is up more than 68%, while the Global X MSCI Argentina ETF is up more than 64%.

Oil prices edged lower but remained higher this week on tensions in the Middle East.

The February contract for West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 67 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $73.41 a barrel. The March Brent crude oil contract fell 54 cents or 0.68% to close at 78.56 yuan per barrel.

U.S. crude prices rose 1% this week as investors closely watched whether an attack by militants in the Red Sea would lead to supply disruptions. Global benchmark Brent crude oil rose 0.47%.

U.S. approves first batch of Bitcoin ETFs to be listed:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the listing of the first batch of Bitcoin spot index funds (ETFs) in the United States on the 10th, and some commodities are scheduled to start trading on the 11th, symbolizing a major milestone in the digital asset industry with a scale of approximately US$1.7 trillion and stimulating Bitcoin. , Ethereum and other cryptocurrency prices rose.

Coindesk’s quotation shows that Bitcoin rose 1.3% to US$46,281.56 on the 11th, Ethereum surged 8% to US$2,614.83, and Binance Coin also surged 4.8% to US$315.55, mainly due to the increase in Bitcoin prices.

After the currency spot ETF passed the test, investors expected that other cryptocurrency ETFs would also have hope.

Card manufacturers said that they still need to continue to observe whether the Bitcoin ETF will bring about mining effects. Board card manufacturers include Gigabyte, NVIDIA, ASRock and Leadtek.

Yesterday (11th), the stock price was encouraged by the sharp rise of NVIDIA, which drove the stock price to rise simultaneously. Gigabyte rose by 15.5 yuan to close at 263 yuan. Leadtek and NVIDIA closed at 263 yuan.

News and other performance are also good. However, industry players also said that they are currently focusing on AI servers driven by artificial intelligence ( AI ) or AIoT business opportunities.

According to an announcement on the SEC website, the Bitcoin spot ETF applications applied by fund industry giants BlackRock, Invesco, Fidelity, Ark Investments, 21Shares, VanEck and Valkyrie were approved.

It took ten years for the Bitcoin spot ETF to finally be launched, which will allow institutional and retail investors to invest in Bitcoin without directly holding Bitcoin.

Standard Chartered analysts said this week that Bitcoin ETFs may attract US$50 billion to US $100 billion in funds this year, which is expected to drive the price of Bitcoin to US$100,000.