Traders continued to push stocks higher even though the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t abated. Investors continued to gravitate towards the positives this week including lower unemployment figures, steadying manufacturing data and the potential for future stimulus measures. These positives, along with some great news on the vaccine front, managed to help push stocks to record highs throughout the week.
Also helping was a relatively decent earnings season. While the number of firms reporting has started to dwindle, those that did report this week showed that the pandemic may not be affecting EPS as badly as expected. This overall feeling has helped analysts ratchet up their expectations for the rest of the year and several key bellwether stocks received an upgrade this week. Tech also helped lift the overall mood on the market with several firms finding a foothold in the new pandemic environment.
In the end, the general optimism about a v-shaped recovery, additional stimulus measures and steadying data helped keep the markets moving higher and meet new records.
Be sure to check out our previous Wrap here, when stocks started to falter.
