Dow Races Toward 17K Mark as Traders Eye Data, Auto Sales

The blue-chip index hit a new all-time high, and rallied toward the 17000 mark Tuesday.

The sharp move comes after a set of fairly tepid trading days on Wall Street.

Strong monthly sales figures from the Big Three Detroit automakers, General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F) and Fiat’s Chrysler helped provide the jolt of energy. Traders were also paying close attention to manufacturing reports from the U.S. and China for the month of June that essentially matched economists’ expectations.

Every sector was recently in the green, besides utilities, which is generally seen as a defensive play. The best performers technology, health care, consumer discretionary and financials. Energy, consumer staples and materials lagged behind.

Michael Block, chief strategist at Rhino Trading Partners, pinned the move on investors re-allocating assets. He said traders were moving money out of Treasury bonds and into small and medium capitalization stocks.

“This is a big asset allocation on the backdrop of benign data,” he said.

Indeed, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond rose 0.032 percentage point to 2.567%. Bond yields move in the opposite direction of prices.