Dow Jones closes above 19,000 for first time

COEUR d'ALENE — When the Dow Jones Industrial Average first hit 17,000 on July 3, 2014, Les Atchley told a Coeur d'Alene Press reporter he expected it to hit 100,000 someday.

"I just don't know when," said Atchley, president of Atchley Financial Group in Coeur d'Alene.

After the Dow closed at 19,000 for the first time Tuesday, Atchley said he still feels that way. The Dow picked up 67.18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 19,023.87 as a post-election rally drove indexes further into record territory. Stocks opened solidly higher after setting records on Monday. They gave up some of their gains around midday but reached new highs late in the afternoon.

The Dow has closed at a record high six times in the two weeks since the presidential election, but trading volume has fallen in recent days. U.S. trading will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and markets will close early on Friday.

"I guess we should call this a Trump rally," Atchley said. "I think the first two weeks of him as president-elect went much better than expected. I always say, if you hold on long enough, the stock market is the best place to build wealth without working that I can think of."

Industrial companies, including makers of aircraft and engines and other equipment, continued to rise. Companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were trading around record highs before the election and they have done better than the broader market since then. Boeing climbed $2.50, or 1.7 percent, to $149.52 Tuesday.

It's sectors of the economy like industrial that Darin Hayes, vice president of the Dugdale Hayes Investment Group in Coeur d'Alene, said his firm emphasizes when seeing strong overall performances from the Dow. Industrial and finance sectors are strong, Hayes said, while others like health care are lacking.

Health care stocks, which are still trading lower than they were at the start of this year, took hefty losses after weak results from Medtronic, one of the world's largest medical device companies.

Hayes said his firm is feeling positive about the direction the markets are heading, but noted that a lot of individuals are still not invested. To illustrate his point, Hayes said that right before the start of the Great Recession in 2007, there was $4.5 trillion in FDIC insured savings deposits and today that number has doubled.

"The hangover is still lingering and there's still a large savings mentality. While we're really optimistic, we caution people who are still on the sidelines to make smart and prudent investments if they want to get back involved," Hayes said, adding that the record-setting day the Dow had Tuesday definitely puts excitement in the air and a smile on a lot of faces.

"Dow 20,000 is not that far away," Hayes said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.