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S&P 500 Continues Record Run as Tech Reigns Supreme

Published 04/08/2021, 03:46 PM
Updated 04/08/2021, 04:04 PM
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 closed at all-time highs for the second straight day Thursday, as big tech continued to ride the fall in bond yields after Federal Reserve Jerome Powell indicated that "unevenness" in the recovery will keep easy monetary policy on the Fed's menu for some time.    

The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, to close at a record high of 4,097.16, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.17%, or 56 points, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.03%.

Chairman Powell, appearing during a virtual IMF panel discussion on Thursday, laid out the case for the central bank to keep its monetary spigot wide open, cooling investor expectations the central bank will be forced to act sooner-than-expected.

"There is a brighter outlook for the U.S. economy from fiscal support, vaccines, but unevenness in recovery is a serious issue," Powell said as he reiterated the current pace of the Fed's monthly bond buying will continue. "We want to see a string of months like the March jobs report to see progress."  

The fed chief's dovish comments echoed the tone of the Fed's March monetary policy meeting minutes released Wednesday. Fed policymakers acknowledged progress on the economy, but continued to back the ongoing pace of monetary support, saying  substantial progress on the recovery will likely take "some time," the minutes showed.

The labor market, meanwhile, continued to offer some credence to the Fed's chief's ongoing cautious outlook as weekly jobless claims increased more than expected, sending U.S. bond yields lower and paving the way for big tech to continue its climb.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) continued to rack up gains. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was slightly lower.

Banks, however, lagged the broader market rally as stuttering bond yields dented sentiment on the interest-rate sensitive sector ahead of earnings from major Wall Street banks next week.

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) was higher, while Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) remained below the flat line.

In consumer discretionary stocks, a surge in Etsy helped offset losses in General Motors (NYSE:GM) after the ongoing global chip shortage forced the automaker to halt production at several factories. 

Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) jumped nearly 6% as investors continued to back the long-term outlook for online retailers even as the reopening is on the horizon. Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) and MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) were up more than 3%.

Latest comments

i believe that facbook will save the world economy.
Expected bull run after the slow previous months. Not sure why people are mad. I guess they are all cash perma-bears.
i keep telling everyone to buy the dip and everyone attacks and mocks me...well, LOL who's making coin?
Keep spending Powell!! Let's see how the S&P fares when the Yuan takes over as the world's reserve currency.
naa..as long as everyone keeps borrowing $ into circulation everything'll be fine
it's not going into circulation, it's going into the market.
Throw away your economic text books and learn from the old wise Powell’s “The power of key currency manipulation”
Someone show powell a chart of lumber/housing prices and ask him if inflation is real or not. Hook him up to a lie detector on live TV when you ask him.
Thanks Joel. Can't afford to build homes right now. Better money on unemployment. Copper has doubled. That means wiring a home has increased 50%. Insulation has doubled over the past three years. All costs are up. Labor is the worst. Illegals coming in think they're worth $500 a day and want their new Ford F-350.
It’s okay. Car companies are offering 60-month loans for new vehicles now. Like when do we say enough is enough? Everything is a bubble.
hi
This isnt right
Because you're not part of it
markets riding the promise of free money from the Fed to all time highs" there, fixes the headline.
hope & optimism is all what matters to bring markets up into crash position watch copper and look also copper last 20year whenndid u saw this jump and what happend with stock markets? signs are visible but those crook banks keep buying everything up, the europe indexes are the proof of it. soon it will end and u will see a lot of people in trouble cause they where forced to buy in on tops
The miracle intraday "recoveries" continue in the US Ponzi Scheme, greatest investment fraud in history, as the legalized financial defiling of America continues in broad daylight.
The USA is on the same path as Japan in 1989
i can see 40 and 50 year mortgages...the 50 year treasury idea has already been floated around
The fall is coming soon. Take a look at the Buffet Indicator.
spy needs to lose some weight. too much money in the fat caps rn. more money to the rich and established, no money to innovations and future. It's sad.
Aaah Yeah I LOVE THE USA, bull never lose.
lots of expectations priced in
everything bad is priced in. everything else has not
salut CV bonsoir
Very good and informative 👍
powell spit and dumped on the working class live on TV
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