With an hour to settlement, the Dow, which serves as Wall Street’s broadest equities indicator with stocks of 30 large US corporations, was up almost 22 points, or 0.1%, at 37,567, after a session peak at 37,684. At its current momentum, the index looks set to rewrite its December 19 record high closing of 37,558.
The S&P 500 Index, which represents the top 500 US stocks, was near flat at 4,773, after reaching a record peak of 4,785 during the session.
The Nasdaq Composite Index, which comprises marquee names in technology such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Netflix, was up 7 points, or 0.1%, at 15,080.52, after an all-time peak at 15,114.
Stocks extended their gains on Wednesday after the US Treasury Department sold $58 billion in 5-year notes, prompting a further pullback in benchmark bond yields.
Yields have plummeted while equities went the other way on signs that inflation could reach the Fed’s 2% target sometime in 2024.
A US inflation indicator closely followed by the Fed grew 2.6% in the year to November, below Wall Street's forecast and beneath the key 3% mark that suggested a greater likelihood of the central bank cutting interest rates significantly next year.
Some analysts worry the market may have gotten ahead of itself.
"The stock market is too optimistic about the quantity of rate cuts expected in 2024, and we may be borrowing some of 2024’s gains now as the year-end rally continues, because we don’t expect to see as many rate cuts as the market is currently predicting," Michael Landsberg, chief investment officer at Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management, said in comments carried by MarketWatch.
Landsberg said his firm expected rate cuts no earlier than July and only three at the most for the year "unless something unexpected happens in the economy."
US GDP grew at 4.9% for the third quarter of this year, lagging forecasts by Wall Street’s analyst community, which targeted a growth of 5.2%.