Even with rate hike on the horizon, stocks continue to defy gravity

US STOCK investors are making hay while the sun shines, snapping up stocks that benefit from low interest rates even as the Federal Reserve repeatedly promises that a hike is coming this year.

Stocks finished near record highs last week and could see more gains this week if reports on durable-goods orders and first-quarter GDP show that the US slowdown was temporary. For most of the year, stocks often fell after strong economic data and rose after poor data. The positives for corporate sales and demand were offset by the greater likelihood of a rate hike.

Now, however, traders are treating Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen like the boy who cried wolf. Ms Yellen and her board have tried to foreshadow the hike so carefully that Wall Street traders - with their notoriously short attention span - have stopped paying attention, even as the hike draws ever nearer.