Nasdaq, gold hit record highs

Markets were mostly higher on Tuesday.

In the US, the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent while the Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.4 percent to a record high.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.7 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 slipped 0.1 percent.

Gold prices rose 1.7 percent to finish above US$2,000 for the first time ever.

“The stock market is living off the Federal Reserve largesse,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management. “Gold is doing well because interest rates have been suppressed and it doesn’t cost anything to hold gold.”

However, Jim Cramer at CNBC has a different take on the stock market's rise.

He noted on CNBC on Monday that the stocks that had risen “do better with the pandemic than without it”, so “when the virus seems unstoppable, you go back to the well and buy, regardless of valuation”.

He added that “these companies are absolutely big enough to drag the averages with them and, amazingly, go much higher.”

“They’re enterprises that have huge demand because the virus has fundamentally changed the way we do business in this country.”