The Dow and S&P 500 soar to record highs as tech stocks rally again
Wall Street was on a tear again Thursday, with tech stocks surging and both the Dow and the S&P 500 notching fresh record highs.
The Dow finished up 0.6%, or 189 points, while the S&P closed 1% higher.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite scored the biggest gains of the day, rising 2.5%.
Spring has sprung and equity investors are in the spirit: They’re feeling optimistic about the $1.9 trillion stimulus package Congress passed this week and signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier in the day, as well as the eventual reopening of the economy.
“Trends related to Covid continue to show improvement on both a national and international basis, as vaccine doses continue to pile up across the country,” said Bespoke Investment’s Paul Hickey.
Bond yields, which climbed recently on worries that an inflation spike would force the Federal Reserve to raise rates sooner rather than later, have fallen back again. Those fears were calmed in part by Wednesday’s inflation report, which was in line with economists’ expectations.
The 10-year US Treasury yield was up 0.01% at 1.53% around the time of the stock market close on Thursday. Bond yields and prices move in opposition to each other.
“It is becoming clear that investors are not sure what to do with stocks at these levels,” Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Think Markets, wrote in a note to clients.
“Some are still keen to keep buying equities, especially those sensitive to the economy, ahead of the arrival of stimulus checks,” Razaqzada added, “while others are happy to book profit after a remarkable rally over the past year or so.”
Thursday’s economic data also helped shore up optimism: Weekly first-time claims for unemployment benefits came in lower than economists had predicted, and they also fell from the prior week. It might be a sign that the US jobs recovery is finally gathering steam.
Even so, with 712,000 seasonally adjusted initial claims filed last week, the number of workers requiring benefits is still higher than during the peak of the Great Recession.
