Not since the Reagan administration has the S&P 500 done this: For the month of August, the S&P showed a gain of 7.01%, its biggest advance for August since 1986 when it rose 7.1% that month.
While the S&P boasted its steepest August percentage gain in more than three decades it ended Monday slightly lower and the Dow also lost ground as investors took a pause although the Nasdaq closed higher thanks to high-flying stocks including Apple Inc.
The Federal Reserve’s commitment to tolerate inflation and keep interest rates low, positive developments in vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 and a rally in tech-focused stocks have helped the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs in August.
The Nasdaq… ended the day almost 20% above its pre-crisis record closing high. Its top two boosts for Monday were from Apple Inc and Tesla Inc after their stock splits… For the S&P, this was its longest winning steak on a monthly basis since a six-month run from April to September 2018.
Apple ended the day 3.4% higher at $129.04 while Tesla closed up 12.6% at $498.32.
MacDailyNews Take: As the S&P 500 posts its biggest August gain since 1986, here’s a fitting quote:
We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and, ultimately, human fulfillment are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success – only then can societies remain alive, dynamic, prosperous, progressive and free.
Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire post-war period, contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development. The societies that have achieved the most spectacular, broad-based progress are neither the most tightly controlled, nor the biggest in size, nor the wealthiest in natural resources. No, what unites them all is their willingness to believe in the magic of the marketplace. — Ronald Reagan, September 29, 1981