MONEY

And they called it the streak: Dow up for 10th straight day, 21K in reach

Adam Shell
USA TODAY

The streaky Dow on Thursday did what it hasn’t done in nearly four years: Finish higher for 10 consecutive trading days.

Traders Patrick Casey, left, and Peter Tuchman work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017. Declines in energy and industrial stocks are leading U.S. indexes slightly lower in early trading as the market comes off a record closing high the day before.

The Dow Jones industrial average hasn’t finished in the red since Feb. 8 — the day before President Trump promised a tax cut plan would be announced in a few weeks.

On Thursday, the Dow finished in the black for the 10th day in a row. That hasn’t happened since March 2013.

The blue chips climbed 0.2%, up 35 points to yet another all-time closing high of 20,810.32. Other major indexes:

► S&P 500, up less than 0.1% to 2363.81.
► Nasdaq composite, down 0.4% to 5835.51. It snapped a 15-day winning streak.

Blue chip stocks have been getting a lift from a number of tailwinds, ranging from optimism surrounding Trump’s economic plans and a realization that the economy, job market and corporate profits have been moving higher for months now.

Wall Street ignores Trump missteps — for now

Records, of course, are meant to be broken. But the Dow will have to finish higher four more sessions to tie its record 14-session winning streak that dates to 1897, according to data compiled by Bespoke Investment Group.

Next up is 11 up days in a row, which hasn’t occurred since January 1992. The Dow would then have to match a 13-session winning streak notched 30 years ago in January 1987, nine months before the Black Monday market crash. Only after taking out these milestones can it make a run at the 14-day record.