Stock market today: Dow leaps 400 points to fresh high as Wall Street cheers Trump’s pick of Scott Bessent

US stocks rose on Monday as small caps rallied near new highs and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose more than 400 points amid a broad sense of optimism over President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary. The Dow increased 0.9% to close at a new record. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.3%, despite Nvidia (NVDA) sliding over 4%. The Russell 2000 (^RUT), up 1.6%, also closed a whisker off a record high. It did notch an intraday high. Stocks kicked off a holiday-shortened week with more of the upbeat mood that lifted the gauges to weekly wins. Markets will shut on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and close early on Friday. Trump tapped Bessent, viewed as the “investor favorite” pick for Treasury, late Friday evening after a surprisingly drawn-out process that saw candidates’ stocks seem to rise and fall by the day. Bessent’s nomination has seemed to at least temporarily calm nerves over the president-elect’s inflationary agenda, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) dipping back under 4.3%. On the inflationary front, the Fed will get its preferred look at the picture heading into Trump’s term with Wednesday’s release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index. Economists expect a tick up in “core” PCE, which is closely watched by the central bank. Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) was in search of a milestone $100,000-per-coin level amid a near-50% surge over the past month. It was back down below $95,000 on Monday, however.