Dow Jones hits 30,000 for the first time as Wall Street bets on 2021 bounce

The Dow Jones Industrial Average breached the 30,000-mark for the first time on Tuesday, as optimism that Covid-19 vaccines will open the way to economic recovery next year fueled Wall Street's rebound from a pandemic-driven crash this year.

Global stock markets sank in February and March as the novel coronavirus spread across Europe and the United States, abruptly halting a bull run that dates back to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

While U.S. economic activity is reeling from the damage inflicted by lockdowns and employment is at levels last seen in 2015, a raft of monetary and fiscal stimulus has powered Wall Street's main indexes back to record highs.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq is trading just around 12,000 points after crossing 10,000 for the first time in June, while the S&P 500 has soared 65% since crashing to a more-than-three-year low in March.

For the blue-chip Dow, the journey to 30,000 from the 20,000-mark took less than four years, a much faster climb than the previous 10,000-point clamber, which took nearly two decades. The rise from 29,000 to 30,000 took the Dow about 10 months.