Can You Believe It? Dow Industrials End Year’s First Half Higher, Brexit Be Damned
June 30, 2016 at 17:14 PM EDT
We've had Brexit , global growth scares , a Fed that desperately wanted to hike interest rates , and one particularly nasty correction . Yet stocks finished the first half of the year solidly in the green. The S&P 500 has gained 2.7% to 2,098.86 during the first six month of 2016 after rising 1.4% today, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.9% to 17,929.99 after gaining 235.31 points, or 1.3%, today. Only the Nasdaq Composite is in the red so far this year: The tech-heavy benchmark has dropped 3.3% to 4,842.67 despite gaining 1.3% today. Why is the market up? BMO's Brian Belski argues that "uncertainty is ruling the roost" but "the US economy and corporate earnings are actually improving." He explains:
