The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday was trading modestly higher, but the climb was enough to put within a reach a fresh record. The blue-chip gauge was less than 40 points, at its peak level in early trade at 22,081, of surpassing its Aug. 7 record of 22,118.42, according to FactSet data. The Dow’s intraday peak of 22,179.11 on Aug. 8, however, may be a tougher mark to surpass. Overall the Dow was up 0.4% at 22,080 in late-morning trade on Wednesday, the S&P 500 index gained 0.3% at 2,472, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.4% higher at 6,356 on the session. Those benchmarks are further away from records because of a divergence between blue-chips and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, but are still relatively close to retouching their all-time highs. The S&P 500’s closing record stands at 2,480.91, hit Aug. 7 and its intraday record is at 2,490.98, reached Aug. 8, while the Nasdaq’s last record close was July 26 at 6,422.75 and its intraday marker is 6,460.84, achieved July 27. An abatement of tensions between the U.S. and North Korea has provided some catalyst for stocks to return to testing their upper limits. Meanwhile, Wall Street is looking ahead to a 2 p.m. release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting meeting in July, which could influence stocks, bonds, currencies and dollar-priced commodities, with an expectation the central bank will hint the start of an unwind of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet as soon as next month.
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