Stocks gain as Dow, Russell 2000 hit fresh highs

NEW YORK — The Dow and Russell 2000 hit new closing highs Tuesday as stock indexes turned positive in the afternoon and stayed there, helped by shares of telecommunications companies such as Verizon, Sprint and AT&T.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 35 points, or 0.2%. That's up about 36 points to 19,251.78, its new all-time closing high.

The Russell 2000 soared 1.1%, up 15 points. Its new closing high: 1,352.67.

Also gaining were the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite, ending up 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

Sprint and T-Mobile shares climbed sharply after President-elect Donald Trump said in a tweet that Japanese company Softbank, which owns the majority of Sprint, was going to invest $50 billion in the U.S. to create 50,000 jobs over the next four years. However, it’s not clear if Softbank’s announcement is new.

Trump: SoftBank to add $50B, 50K jobs in U.S.

Sprint jumped 1.5%, while T-Mobile rose 1.8%.

Dow component Boeing experienced some turbulence after an earlier tweet from Donald Trump criticizing the cost of the company's deal to build a new Air Force One.  But after dropping more than 1%,  BA came in for a smooth landing, ending up less than 0.1%.

Trump slams Boeing deal for new Air Force One

U.S. government bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.39% from 2.40% late Monday. In foreign exchange trading, the dollar rose to 114.06 yen from 113.75 yen. The euro fell to $1.0718 from $1.0770.

Italy’s stock market jumped 4.2%, a day after slipping in the wake of the failure of a constitutional referendum that forced the resignation of that country’s premier. France’s CAC 40 added 1.3%, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5% and Germany’s DAX rose 0.8%.