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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Dow Jones industrial average closed above 20,000 points for the first time, the latest milestone in a record-setting drive for the stock market.
It's been two months since the Dow crossed 19,000 points. Other major U.S. indexes also closed at all-time highs Wednesday.
Banks and other financial companies posted the biggest gains. Wells Fargo jumped 3.7 percent.
Industrial companies also rose sharply. Boeing surged 4.2 percent, the biggest gain in the Dow.
The Dow, which tracks 30 major industrial companies, surged 155 points, or 0.8 percent, to 20,068.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 18 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,298. The Nasdaq composite rose 55 points, or 1 percent, to 5,656.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.52 percent.
The market has been marching steadily higher since bottoming out in March 2009 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The rally escalated after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last fall. The Dow first closed above 10,000 on March 29, 1999.
Many professional investors are downplaying the importance of the Dow hitting 20,000. They more often look to the S&P 500 index as a benchmark, because they consider it better representation of the broad market.
"In and of itself, it is just a number," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. "But what it does is it lifts market expectations, in essence, to continue moving higher."
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