Dow Jones breaks through 22,000

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged past 22,000 points for the first time ever in opening trade on Wednesday, lifted by a rise in Apple shares.

The Dow, a basket of 30 major US stocks, added more than 46 points in opening trade, rising 0.21% to 22,010.62.

The Wednesday morning milestone continued a streak of share price gains since January.

The Dow has since lost most of those early gains and is back below 22,000.

The wider S&P 500 index was essentially flat at 2,476.93.

The tech-focused Nasdaq index climbed 24.37 points or 0.38% to 6,387.31.

The markets’ rise on Wednesday morning was attributed to reaction to earnings from technology giant Apple.

Shares of the California company spiked more than 5% after the firm reported strong sales of iPhones, iPads and other services.

The Dow has risen almost 11% since the start of the year. The S&P is up about 10%, while the Nasdaq has climbed about 17%.

Analysts first said the stock rally was due to optimism about President Donald Trump’s business-friendly policies such as corporate tax reform. Now they say strong corporate earnings are boosting share prices.