Stocks rose to all-time highs on Thursday as the strong rally in 2019 was set to continue in the first trading day of the New Year.
The Dow Jones Industrials popped 171.63 points to into the year's first noon hour at 28,710.07
The S&P 500 gained 9.41 points to 3,240.19.
The NASDAQ bounced higher 53.07 points to 9,026.48
Chip stocks led the way on Wall Street. Advanced Micro Devices was up by 3.9% while Taiwan Semiconductor and Micron Technology both gained more than 2%. KLA took on 2%, and Intel rose 1.4%.
Semiconductor stocks surged 62% in 2019, their best one-year performance since 2003.
Tesla shares rose 1.5% after an analyst at Canaccord Genuity hiked his price target on the stock to $515 per share from $375 per share, noting 2020 will be an “electric year” for the company (the analyst's words, not ours!)
Thursday's gains come after Wall Street booked a strong 2019 performance on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 rising 28.9% in the year. That was the broad index's biggest annual gain since 2013, when it surged 29.6%. The Dow, meanwhile, climbed 22.3% while the NASDAQ Composite skyrocketed more than 35%.
Sentiment was lifted Thursday after the People's Bank of China lowered the amount of reserve cash the country's banks must hold, which will put more money into the economy. This move will inject about 800 billion yuan in liquidity to the Chinese economy.
On the data front, weekly jobless claims came in at 222,000, slightly below estimates of 225,000.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury rose, dropping yields to 1.88% from Tuesday's 1.92%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took off 31 cents to $60.75 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $7.20 at $1,530.30 U.S. an ounce.