Investors pushed stocks slightly higher Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average tacked on 5.75 points to finish at 12,883.95 while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose 12 points and 3 points, respectively.
Despite the modest gains, investors should be encouraged by the fact that all three major indexes rallied up more than 20% from their early-October lows.
Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that weekly mortgage applications moved higher last week primarily as a result of increased demand for refinancing as interest rates continued to decline.
Here are some more details from Wednesday’s trading session:
Dow Jones Industrial Average:
- Up two consecutive trading days and three of the last four.
- Highest closing value since May 19, 2008.
- An intraday high of 12893.64 occurred at 10:05:15 today, representing an increase of 15.44 points, or 0.12%.
- An intraday low of 12817.69 occurred at 11:44:41 today, representing a decrease of 60.51 points, or 0.47%.
- Sixteen of the 30 component stocks rose, 12 fell, two were unchanged.
- Today's top five contributors to The Dow's movement and their point contribution: UTX (11.05), BA (5.30), HPQ (3.86), JPM (3.25), IBM (2.65).
- Today's bottom five laggards: MCD (-6.51), XOM (-4.16), AXP (-3.71), HD (-2.19), KO (-1.67).
- Up 96.79% from its 12-year closing low of 6547.05 on March 9, 2009.
- Down 9.04% from its record close of 14164.53 on October 09, 2007.
- Rose 5.26% from 52 weeks ago.
- Up 4.24% from its 2012 closing low of 12359.92 on January 06, 2012.
- Up 20.92% from its 52-week low of 10655.30 on October 03, 2011.
- Month-to-date: up 1.99%.
- Year-to-date: up 5.45%.
- DJIA crossed zero 49 times during today's trading session.
Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index:
- Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market, up 28.20 points, or 0.20%, to 14091.63, or approximately 33.0 billion in market capitalization.
- Up two consecutive trading days and five of the last six.
- A new 2012 closing high.
- Highest closing value since Friday, July 22, 2011.
- Down 10.50%, (approximately $2.8 trillion in market cap), from its record close of 15745.39 on October 09, 2007.
- Up 107.23% (approximately $8.4 trillion in market cap), from the 12-½ year closing low of 6800.08 on March 9, 2009.
- Rose 2.24% from 52 weeks ago.
- Up 6.70% from its 2012 closing low of 13206.64 on January 04, 2012.
- Down 1.51% from its 52-week high of 14308.37 on April 29, 2011.
- Up 24.71% from its 52-week low of 11299.07 on October 03, 2011.
- Month-to-date: up 3.14%, or approximately $509 billion in market cap.
- Year-to-date: up 8.24%, or approximately $1.3 trillion in market cap.
Data courtesy of Dow Jones Indexes.