The stock market motored ahead last week by about 1%, again finishing at all-time highs. Investors were cheered by the Republican midterm electoral win, continued strong corporate quarterly profits, and speculation that the European Central Bank would amplify its monetary stimulus.

While one beaten-up group, small-caps, didn’t do as well, other industry sectors that had taken a pounding lately, like energy and commodity-related stocks, rebounded sharply.

On Thursday, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the ECB would do what’s necessary to kick-start the faltering euro zone, implying up to a 1 trillion euro ($1.25 trillion) increase in the bank’s balance sheet through simulative bond-buying. Despite having heard that before, investors took it to heart.

Last week, the Dow rose 183 points or 1% to 17,573.93, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 14 to 2,031.92. Both were new closing highs. The Nasdaq Composite index ended little changed at 4632.53, as did the Russell 2000 small cap index, at 1173.32.

Last Wednesday, all three Dow Jones major averages, the industrials, transports and utilities, closed at a record. Like perfect games in baseball, that doesn’t happen often; the last time was on April 25, 2007. When you throw in the S&P 500, which also made a new high that day, you would have to go back to March 1998 to find the last time all four ended at all-time highs on the same day.

(Source: Barrons Online)