Dow Jones closes above 20,000

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - The Dow Jones industrial average on Wednesday closed above 20,000 points for the first time. Cheers erupted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange when the milestone was reached Wednesday morning.

The market has been marching steadily higher since bottoming out in March 2009 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The rally continued after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last fall. The index is up 1,668 points since Election Day.

Strength in the materials and financials sectors helped push the Dow across the line after Trump on Tuesday gave the green light for the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines Opens a New Window.  – two projects that stalled under President Barack Obama’s administration. In recent days, Trump has also met with U.S. business leaders, including the chief executives of the Big Three American automakers amid a push for more domestically-built automobiles. 

Financial-sector stocks have also been a key element in the post-election rally that has led not only to Dow 20K, but fresh records on both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes. While action in the sector cooled in recent weeks, improving global economic growth and consolidation in the U.S. dollar/U.S. Treasury yields has been a support for risk assets, said Dennis DeBusschere, senior managing director at Evercore ISI.

The Associated Press and Fox Business contributed to this report.