Dow and S&P 500 Set New Records Yet Again as Stocks Continue Bull Run

Little economic news figured into Wednesday’s rally, aside from some unexpectedly good trade data out of China indicating increases in the country’s imports and exports.

Nouriel Roubini, the scholar of economic collapses and crises otherwise fondly known as “Dr. Doom” even had positive, or at least not completely negative, predictions to offer the investment community. During an interview with CNBC, he told anchor Scott Wapner that stocks were likely to head upward for “another year or two” prior to the likelihood of another bubble and subsequent crash.

After closing above 15,000 for the first time ever on Tuesday, the Dow finished off Wednesday at a new watermark, up 0.32 percent to 15,105.12. Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) was up 3.32 percent to $62.51, while Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) gained 2.78 percent to close at $21.07, and aluminum manufacturer Alcoa rose 2.66 percent to $8.87 per share.

The day’s highest-volume gain was for Bank of America (BAC), up 0.93 percent to $13.02 on just under 148.7 million shares.

The S&P 500 extended its rally into a fifth day, with its second consecutive record closing at 1,632.69 points, an advance of 0.41 percent.  Strong earnings reports sent shares for Electronic Arts (EA) tearing upwards, on a gain of 17.27 percent to $21.59, while shares for Whole Foods Market (WFM) popped nearly 10 percent to close at $101.94.

First Solar (FSLR) stemmed some of the blood flow by ending the day up just over 4 percent to close at $42.50 per share, while JCPenney (JCP) gained 7.38 percent to $17.61 as the company’s stock was upgraded to “hold” by Maxim Group LLC, an indication that the company’s turnaround from last year’s disastrous turnaround is starting to take shape.

The Nasdaq was up just shy of half a percent at 0.49 to close at 3,413.27, with a great deal of help from tech shares. Cisco Systems (CSCO) was up 1.67 percent to close at $20.72, while Apple (AAPL) gained 1.13 percent to close at $463.84, and TW Telecom (TWTC) jumped 5.8 percent to close at $28.77. Chinese internet search company Baidu (BIDU) extended its streak of the last two days with another strong showing, up over 4 percent to $92.91.