It's been an extraordinary day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and many ASX shares so far this Friday. This session has seen investors build on the momentum we saw yesterday to push the stock market to new record highs.
Yesterday, the ASX 200 closed at 8,639 points, just a whisker away from the index's previous all-time high of 8,639.1 points that we saw crossed in early June.
But this morning, the ASX 200 quickly moved out of the gate. The index climbed as high as 8,745.2 points this afternoon. To state the obvious, that is a new all-time record high for the ASX 200 Index, marking the first time in history that it has traded in the 8,700-point range.
At the time of writing, investors have cooled their jets a little. But even so, the index is currently sitting at 8,729.4 points, up a comfortable 1.05% for the day thus far.
At the current pricing, today's upward push puts the ASX 200's 2025 year-to-date gains at a healthy 6.5% or so. That stretches to 8.65% over the past 12 months.
If you're curious about which ASX 200 shares are driving these gains, look no further than some of the usual suspects.
We are seeing some robust gains from a few of the ASX banks, including National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ). Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) did dip a little around midday, but has since bounced back into green territory.
BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) is also driving gains, with its shares presently up more than 2.8%. And CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) has risen 3.1% today.
So it seems it's an ASX 200 group effort for this latest all-time high.
Why has the ASX 200 just broken its record high?
It's hard to know for sure what is driving today's ASX 200 record high. But we can point to two highly likely catalysts.
The first is the US markets. The ASX often takes its cues from Wall Street. Last night, the flagship S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX) hit a new record high of its own, with many prominent US stocks climbing to new records this week.
That would be doing nothing but helping the ASX 200 this week by extension.
The second is this week's employment numbers. As we covered just yesterday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that unemployment unexpectedly ticked up over June, rising from 4.1% to 4.3%.
Whilst this might be sobering news for the economy, it has excited ASX 200 investors. That's because the market now views more interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) as imminent, with the case for economic stimulus rising.
As we've covered before, investors view lower interest rates as a tailwind for the stock market, as they attract capital from cash and bond investments.
Let's see where the ASX 200 heads next. Perhaps we'll see the index at 9,000 points before we know it. But only time will tell.
