Wall Street bounces back from Christmas Eve rout in record style. Biggest ever daily points gains for all three main US indices. Wall Street enjoyed record-breaking gains on Boxing Day after suffering its worst ever Christmas Eve, giving cheer to investors after a torrid festive season for stock markets. All three of the big US indices delivered their largest ever daily points gains yesterday. In percentage terms, all climbed by the most in a day since March 2009. The Dow Jones industrial average added more than a thousand points for the first time in its history to close 5%, or 1,086.25 points, up at 22,878.45. The technology-focused Nasdaq pulled itself out of a bear market, rising by 361.44, or 5.8%, to 6,554.36. The S&P 500 dipped into the red in morning trading but rallied strongly to reach 2,467.70 by the close, a gain of 116.60 points, or 5%.
Confidence slumps amid growing fear for economy. Business leaders are more depressed over the state of the economy and the prospects for their own companies than at any time since the summer of 2017, when Theresa May’s decision to call a snap general election led to a hung parliament with Brexit looming. Latest figures from the monthly “confidence tracker” report of the Institute of Directors show that all regions of the UK are more pessimistic than at any time in the past 18 months. The finding comes as a report from R3, the trade body for insolvency and corporate turnaround professionals, has found that 11% of companies are unable to pay down their debt. Instead, these businesses are said to be treading water, paying off the interest on borrowings and leaving themselves vulnerable to an economic downturn.
