By Aaron Kuriloff

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 20000 for the first time, the latest milestone in the U.S. stock market's postelection rally.

If the blue-chip index of 30 stocks closes above the mark Wednesday, it will be the second-fastest thousand-point gain after it took 24 trading days to climb from 10000 to 11000 during the dot-com boom in 1999.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average 108 points, or 0.5%, to 20034 early Wednesday. The S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6%.

The Dow industrials have surged since Election Day, buoyed by investors' bets that the administration of President Donald Trump will pursue policies such as tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks and infrastructure spending that could improve the outlook for U.S. companies. The index has risen roughly 9% since Nov. 8, notching several highs, and closed above 19000 for the first time ever Nov. 22.

Investors' surge into mining and manufacturing companies pushed the index toward the milestone Tuesday, as some bet that Mr. Trump's moves to revive oil-pipeline projects and cut regulations signaled the first steps toward clearing the way for a surge in infrastructure spending.

The gains also came as earnings from companies including banks highlighted improving corporate profits and ongoing U.S. economic growth. Shares of Boeing rose 2.4% Wednesday after the aerospace company beat expectations for earnings in the final quarter of the year.

Haven assets were under pressure, with selling in government bonds sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 2.504%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.471% after its biggest daily rise of 2017. Gold fell 1.1% to $1,197.60.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against 16 others, rose 0.1%.

"We're guardedly optimistic," said Michael Thompson, managing director at S&P Global Market Intelligence. "The U.S. was inexorably poised to move out of this kind of this slow growth trajectory, and some of the policy changes are certainly going to facilitate that, as long as the worst pitfalls are avoided.

Write to Aaron Kuriloff at aaron.kuriloff@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2017 09:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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