US markets settle at new record highs on Friday

21 Dec 2019 Evaluate

Continuing southward journey, the US markets settled at new record highs on Friday after encouraging US economic data. Traders continue to wait to hear the details of the agreement, but the news of the deal has still helped eliminate some of the uncertainty hanging over the markets. The Commerce Department released a report showing US economic growth in the third quarter was unrevised from the previous estimate. The Commerce Department said real gross domestic product jumped by 2.1 percent in the third quarter, unchanged from the estimate released last month and in line with street expectations. The unrevised GDP growth in the third quarter reflects a modest acceleration from the 2.0 percent increase seen in the second quarter.

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed a notable acceleration in the pace of personal income growth in the month of November. The report said personal income climbed by 0.5 percent in November after inching up by a revised 0.1 percent in October. Street had expected personal income to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the virtually unchanged reading originally reported for the previous month. The Commerce Department said personal spending also climbed by 0.4 percent in November following a 0.3 percent increase in October. The spending growth matched street estimates.

Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 78.13 points or 0.28 percent to 28455.09, Nasdaq rose 37.74 points or 0.42 percent to 8924.96 and S&P 500 was up by 15.85 points or 0.49 percent to 3221.22.

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