Stocks open at all-time highs

Markets Insider

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened for trading at an all-time high on Monday, and less than 100 points from the round 19,000 level.

The index rose to as high as 18,918.68 shortly after the market opened, extending a rally from last week that took it to a record high. At 9:33 a.m. ET, the Dow is up 36 points (0.19%,) the S&P 500 is up 3 points (0.17%,) and the Nasdaq is unchanged. 

The Russell 2000 index, which consists of small-cap stocks, also rose to an all-time high. 

Stocks rallied last week after the election of President-elect Donald Trump as some investors became hopeful that his fiscal-spending plans and tax cuts could trigger economic growth. 

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs shares were the biggest gainers on the Dow in early trading. Banking stocks surged last week as investors bet that Trump would provide a more favorable regulatory environment for their businesses. 

But the bigger market reaction to the election is in the bond market. US Treasurys continue selling off amid expectations that the Trump economy will trigger higher inflation. Inflation has an inverse relationship with bond prices, as higher inflation erodes the expected return on bonds at the time that they mature.

Bond yields, which also move in the opposite direction to bond prices, rose to the highest level of the year, with the benchmark 10-year yield up 11 basis points to 2.237% shortly after the stock-market open. 

However, some strategists caution that the market may be getting ahead of itself with bullish bets on Trump. 

Here's John Stoltzfus, the chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, writing to clients in a note Monday:

"While growth boosters including tax cuts for individuals and corporations along with a much needed sizeable investment towards building and upgrading infrastructure nationwide appear high on the incoming administration’s agenda, the path from planning to initiation, implementation and eventual execution is some distance away on the horizon and then some time before these items gain enough traction to actually move the needle on the economy."

There's no major economic data on deck. The data highlights for the week include the October retail sales report due on Tuesday, and the consumer price index on Thursday. 

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