The Dow Jones industrial average has begun March like a lion — running its winning streak yesterday to 10.
The much-watched index, which has hit a record high in each of the past eight sessions, is now just three days shy of tying the all-time record of 13 straight advances.
“A lot of money is shifting around,” said Joshua Brown, of New York investment adviser Fusion Analytics.
“The view that equities have more potential than bonds is going to be powerful going forward,” he said.
The Dow closed at 14,539.14 and is up 11 percent this year. It has closed up every day this month.
At the same time, the wider S&P 500 Index closed yesterday at 1,563.23, up 9.6 percent for the year and within 1.92 points of equaling the all-time high.
Some on Wall Street believe the stampede of the Dow and S&P has gotten ahead of a still-fragile US economy.
However, more bullish market watchers said there are signs the economy is coming back — and that is fueling the markets rise.
For example, yesterday’s news that initial jobless claims last week fell more than expected gave investors more confidence.
Rock-bottom interest rates and sustained signs of recovery are also putting wind at the markets’ backs.
There’s still more room to advance, Brown said, pointing to a housing recovery that still has a ways to go.
“Stocks don’t have as big of a wealth effect as houses do,” he said, adding that stability in housing prices is probably the biggest positive in terms of consumer confidence.
The biggest immediate negative is probably a crisis erupting in Europe, which could spill over into the US, as has happened in the past three springs.
And there is still much more room to advance on employee wages.
If consumers start earning more, said Brown, “that sets loose animal spirits where people have real confidence.”
History, it appears, is on the side of the market’s advance continuing — even though it is up 125 percent since its March 2009 bottom..
“The good news is that since World War II, only two of the six bull markets that made it to their fourth anniversary failed to make it to a fifth,” says Jeff Kleintop, chief strategist at LPL Financial.