US: Dow closes above 40,000 for first time as stocks finish mixed

THE Dow Jones finished above 40,000 points for the first time on Friday, as stocks were mixed on Wall Street at the end of the trading week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 0.3 per cent to finish at 40,003.59.

The broad-based S&P 500 closed up 0.1 per cent at 5,303.27, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.1 per cent to 16,685.97.

But despite the slight decline in the Nasdaq, all three major indexes still finished the week higher than they were at the start of it.

“We made a breakout to new record high,” Karl Haeling from LBBW told AFP.

“The market is just choosing to consolidate, which is probably a healthy thing,” he continued. “Because it’s racing and getting too exuberant.”

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Among individual companies, petrochemical producer Valero Energy finished the day up 4.8 per cent, while the mining company Freeport McMoRan was up 4.2 per cent.

One of the day’s big losers was Paramount Global, which saw its share price fall 4.9 per cent. AFP