Tuesday Afternoon Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories That Moved Markets

If you spent the day hiding in your bunker, fearing that the sequester would topple the equity markets and investors would be buried in the refuse of speculative buying, you wasted your time. Spurred by broad optimism and buoyed by the Fed’s easy-money policy, the Dow Jones Industrial average hit a new record high of 14,286.37.

At the close: DJIA: +0.89%, S&P 500: +0.96%, NASDAQ: +1.32%.

Here are three stories that helped move markets on Tuesday:

1) Used as a proxy for the economic health of the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is showing all the signs of renewed vigor despite lingering high unemployment — which still stands at uncomfortable 7.9 percent — and slow gross domestic product growth — which came in at a minimal rate of 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012. However, not all analysts are convinced that the rally will continue.

Shooting past the critical threshold set back in 2007, the bluechip index set a new record on Tuesday, hitting an intraday high of 14,286.37 — surpassing the previous record of 14,198.10 — and closing at 14,253.77 — surpassing the previous record of 14,164.53. While some investors are celebrating, others are voicing concerns… (Read more.)