But Thursday, the markets hit a speed bump with the Dow Jones Industrial Average sliding 113 points.
In what could be the most insane quarter of earnings reports in a generation, roughly 77% of S&P 500 companies have beaten profit expectations. That's a massive jump from the 63% of companies that typically beat the markets in a quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data. But keep in mind, consensus expectations called for firms to report a 7.2% average decline in profits.
Here's what else you need to know about the markets on April 21, 2016.
The Shocking Forecast for Oil Prices in 2016: Crude oil prices plunged in 2015, but our forecast points to a turnaround this year that will send the price of oil higher. Read more...
First up, check out the results for the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
Dow Jones: 17,982.52; -113.75; -0.63%
S&P 500: 2,091.48; -10.92; -0.52%
Nasdaq: 4,945.89; -2.24; -0.05%
Now, here's the top stock market news today...
It seems like President Obama's U.S. Treasury Department and other federal agencies are trying to cram eight years of new regulations into a three-month period.
The latest regulatory proposals center on how much money Wall Street executives can receive in salaries and bonuses. Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve, and others proposed rules that would curb financial executives from taking risky positions in order to boost their pay. The rules would require a seven-year waiting period for firms to "claw back" or repossess bonuses if executives' actions negatively affect their institutions.
Oil prices reversed Thursday as concerns about a global glut returned to traders' minds after energy market intelligence firm Genscape reported a massive build of inventories happened last week. The firm said that the delivery point at Cushing, Oklahoma, added 840,000 barrels in the four days leading up to April 19. WTI crude prices fell 1.6%, while Brent prices slid 2.2%.
In recent sessions, oil prices had been moving higher due to a variety of factors expected to impact supply. First, a number of global oil producers announced plans to meet in Russia next month to try again to build a consensus to freeze output in order to support price. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency announced the price decline over the last 18 months drove non-OPEC producers to slash investment by up to 40% since 2014.
Here's everything you need to know about oil prices right now.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims fell below the psychological level of 247,000 for last week. Weekly unemployment claims have fallen to their lowest levels since 1973.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Fed Index contracted in April, raising new concerns about the health of the U.S. manufacturing sector. The monthly index slipped -1.6, far below the 10.5 reading that economists had expected. In March, the reading hit 12.4, the first positive reading in seven months.
Now, let's look at the day's biggest stock movers and today's most important stock strategy...
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About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.