Jan. 10 (UPI) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are drawing closer to exiting correction territory after reporting gains on a string of consecutive days.
The Dow was up 91.67 points, or 0.39 percent, and the S&P 500 was up 10.55 points or 0.41 percent at the end of trading Wednesday, as they began to bounce back from a market correction, which is generally defined as a decline of 10 percent or greater from a market’s most recent peak.
After reporting gains for four consecutive days, the Dow was at 23,879.12 points, 9.57 percent up from its Dec. 24 low, while the S&P reached 2,584.96 points, 9.95 percent above the Christmas Eve low.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.87 percent on Wednesday, and overall up 12.3 percent from its Christmas Eve low, but remained 7.7 percent away from exiting a bear market — typically defined as 20 percent below a bull market peak — which it entered on Dec. 21.
The recent stock market winning streak has come amid ongoing talks seeking to end the trade war with China that loomed over the market for much of 2018 and indications that the Federal Reserve is likely to scale back rate hikes going forward.
U.S. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney said Wednesday that trade negotiations between the United States and China “went just fine,” CNBC reported.
“It’s been a good one for us,” McKinney said.
As a result of the positive news from the meetings, Caterpillar rose 0.4 percent and Boeing increased 1 percent on Wednesday.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting in December indicated a backdrop of low inflation that would allow the bank to “afford to be patient about further policy firming.”
Fed officials also said they believe a “relatively limited amount” rate hikes will come in the future, after rate hikes throughout 2018 caused drops in the major markets amid concerns of a recession.
