You Shall Not Pass! Dow Surges to New High This Week as Stocks Refuse to Fall

The major indexes rose to new highs this week as investors ignored the chaos in Washington and refused to let the market fall. The S&P 500 rose 1.5% this week after advancing 0.2% to 2,351.16 today, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.7% this week after ticking up 4.28 points to 20,624.05. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.8% this week after today. There were all sorts of reasons for the market to drop this week: Fed chief Janet Yellen was more hawkish than expected when she testified to Congress this week, while President Donald J. Trump was busy defending himself , rather than proposing business friendly legislation. But the market refused to take a loss for an answer. Today, for instance, the Dow had been down as much as 87.16 points, before rallying back, while the blue chip benchmark rallied back from a 55.03 decline. In fact, that's been the pattern all year in the S&P 500, explains the folks at Bespoke Investment Group :