President Donald Trump delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night — and by Wednesday morning, the markets were already reacting in a big way.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared roughly 200 points during the opening bell, sending the index well above 21,000 for the first time in history, CNBC reported.
Goldman Sachs saw the most gains of any of the more than two dozen companies included on the index. The global investment banking company saw the price of its stocks rise by nearly 7 percent during Wednesday's open, with each of its shares being valued at $254.15.
According to Quincy Krosby, market strategist at the investment management company Prudential Financial, Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress "has gone a long way for the market" because it convinced traders on Wall Street that the agenda Trump had previously laid out could actually pass both houses.
CNBC specifically cited Trump proposing to reform the tax code and ease regulations as two key of the reasons for Wednesday's record opening.
"Currently, when we ship products out of America, many other countries make us pay very high tariffs and taxes. But when foreign companies ship their products into America, we charge them almost nothing," Trump said during his address Tuesday, repeating a popular campaign talking point, in which he promised to impose a "border tax" on companies that move overseas, but then try to ship their products to sell in the U.S.
Other than his proposed border tax, however, Trump offered few specifics for how to actually accomplish tax reform. And that, according to Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at the international currency exchange company Oanda, is something the administration needs to lay out.
"While it's understandable that these things take time to plan and implement properly, markets have been way ahead of the game since Trump's victory and there comes a time when we need to know exactly what they're rallying on," Erlam told CNBC.
The Dow's record high came just over a month after the index topped 20,000 for the first time in its history.
That milestone was attributed at the time to Trump's bold actions during his first week in office, which included an executive order aimed at easing Obamacare regulations. Trump, in his speech Wednesday, again promised to "repeal and replace" the "collapsing" health care law passed in 2010.
“Mandating every American to buy government-approved health insurance was never the right solution for America,” Trump said.
The president instead proposed allowing patients to purchase health insurance across state lines, expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts and making it illegal for health insurance companies to impose “unnecessary costs" on patients and doctors.
"We must act decisively to protect all Americans,” Trump said. “Action is not a choice. It is a necessity.”
