US stocks close at record high

The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 both reached fresh highs during yesterday's (June 2nd) trading session in the US.

Both markets have been growing very well in 2014 so far and have regularly been pushing to fresh highs since the turn of the year. This is in contrast to how the indexes performed over the course of 2013, when they were beaten comfortably by the expansion of the Nikkei in Japan.

The markets were up on the back of a new report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), which revealed manufacturing was expanding at a brisk pace last month, reports the Press Association. This was in contrast to the previous figures from the body, which suggested there was a contraction in activity in the sector in May.

"It's a debacle, as far as ISM is concerned," said Tom di Galoma, head of fixed income rates at ED&F Man Capital. It's hurt their credibility and it's going to take a while for that to recover."

Stocks up

The Dow responded to the new manufacturing data by rising 26.46 points, or an increase of 0.2 per cent, to close the first day of the new week at 16,743.63. There was a similar performance on the S&P 500, which rose by 1.40 points, or an increase of 0.1 per cent, to finish up at 1,924.97. But there was a clean sweep for the main indexes in the US, as the Nasdaq composite was down by just 5.42 points, a fall of 0.1 per cent, to finish the session at 4,237.20.

Stocks were also up in Japan as a result of the improvement in manufacturing in the US during May, with the Nikkei rising in value by 2.1 per cent on the back of the news.

Chinese manufacturing has also been revealed to be improving in the last few weeks, with a new report from the Asian nation showing the industry's activity expanded during the course of May.

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