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The Dow hit 17,000 today. Is it time for celebration, panic, or indifference?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average pushed through 17,000 today and fireworks lit up the skies across the nation in celebration of another landmark in stock market history.
Oh wait a minute, that was just Fourth of July fireworks. Scratch that.
The S&P 500 also came within 1% of puncturing 2000. The driving force was a jobs report that was better than expected. The U.S. created 288,000 jobs in June and unemployment declined to 6.1%, the lowest since 2008. So, that’s definitely good news.
But should you care about the Dow hitting 17,000? It’s a lofty, round number, for sure. Round numbers help us grasp things. So if it helps investors grasp what this rally has been like, that’s good.
The larger question is what’s next? And if you have a crystal ball that actually works, please send it directly to Wyatt Investment Research in Richmond, Vermont, because we’ll pay top dollar.
Will the Dow hitting 17,000 stoke investor exuberance and push the stock market higher? Onward to 20,000! Good times ahead.
Or will the bears see this as yet another sign the current market rally has about as much fortitude of a house of cards that’s about to come tumbling down?
We don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody knows.
But it doesn’t matter. Not if you’re an investor looking for great companies to own for the long haul, anyway. For you it’s a market of stocks more than a stock market. The Dow hitting 17,000 might make your job a little harder if you’re looking for value, but we’ll try to help.
In the end, this is one case where you have to see the trees through the forest.
Seventeen thousand doesn’t really matter. But if it makes you feel good about stocks, investing, and America in general, then just take a deep breath and enjoy it. It’s a good way to start the Fourth of July holiday. Seventeen thousand is better than 10,000. The founding fathers would likely agree on that.
Take the weekend off. The Dow will be back on Monday. And so will we.
Bob Bobala is the Managing Editor of Wyatt Investment Research.
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