US stocks at record high as investor sentiment rises

Markets mostly rose on Thursday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent to a record high after President Donald Trump hinted of a tax cut announcement in the coming weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite also closed at all-time highs.

Elsewhere, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.8 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 percent but the Nikkei 225 fell 0.5 percent.

Walter Todd, chief investment officer at Greenwood Capital Associates, noted that the S&P 500 has “broken through overhead resistance at the 2,300 level” and “could continue to grind higher from here”.

Indeed, the American Association of Individual Investors reported that its sentiment survey this week showed that the percentage of bullish respondents rose 3.0 percentage points to 35.8 percent while bearish sentiment fell 6.5 percentage points to 27.7 percent.