The Dow Jones Industrial Average has just reached 20,000 points for the first time ever

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has now gained more than 23 per cent since this time last year

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in late morning trading after the Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 20,000 mark for the first time in New York City. Solid earnings from major companies, including Boeing, led the morning rally (Getty Images)

Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed the 20,000 mark for the first time in its history on Wednesday, underscoring the continued momentum behind a Donald Trump-induced stock rally.

In morning trading in the US, the benchmark blue chip index added around 0.5 per cent to surpass the psychologically important threshold and take its gains since this time last year to close to 24 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

“The Dow moving up and over 20,000 is a sign of an exceptionally strong US economy," said Kully Samra, UK managing director of brokerage Charles Schwab. “There is no question that we are witnessing a surge in business, consumer and investor confidence, in keeping with the more business-friendly policies of the Trump administration.”

Along with Wall Street's S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Compsite, the Dow has been on a tear in recent months, largely spurred by US President Donald Trump’s campaign promises of major tax cuts, regulatory roll-backs and bumper infrastructure spending.

Bank stocks enjoyed particularly dramatic gains in the wake of Mr Trump's November election victory. And although moves in recent weeks have become more muted, US equities have remained in widespread favour relative to other asset classes around the world.

“Trump was viewed as a challenge to the world order, a threat to the system that many investors had expected to continue in perpetuity – however, it took mere hours for the sentiment to shift as investors began to anticipate a fiscal splurge,” Geir Lode, head of global equities at Hermes Investment Management, wrote in a note earlier this week.

He said that positive sentiment was now extending beyond investors to US consumer sentiment.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that if the Dow remains above 20,000 by the time the stock market closes, the 42-session surge from the first-ever close above 19,000 would mark the second-shortest length of time between such milestones.

The news agency says that a 24-trading-day streak, which saw the index rally from 10,000 to 11,000 between March and May in 1999, marked the shortest period for that achievement ever.

David Absolon, investment director at Heartwood Investment Management, said that although a months-long market rally had showed signs of slowing and even pulling back in recent days, he expected that to be “a pause rather than anything more serious”.

“We are holding a greater exposure to US equities than we have had for some time,” he said.

Neil Wilson, a market analyst at ETX Capital, said that cracking the 20,000 mark on the Dow “confirms that the ‘great rotation’ from bonds to stocks is definitely upon us”. In recent years, many investors have been migrating out of fixed-income products, like government and corporate bonds, as a result of rock-bottom interest rates in places like the US, the UK and the rest of Europe.

For those hungry for returns, stocks have frequently offered a much more lucrative alternative.

Wednesday's gains across US stock indexes were also helped by the continuation of a strong corporate earnings season.

Of the 79 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, nearly 70 per cent have beaten expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Boeing, the world's biggest plane maker, on Wednesday published forecast-beating results, and said it expects to deliver more planes and higher earnings in 2017, sending shares up more than 2 per cent in early trading.