A rally in big technology stocks, a tailwind of optimism from the Biden administration’s latest spending plan and a jump in oil prices combined on Thursday to lift Wall Street to another record, this one punctuated by the S&P 500 index’s close above 4,000 for the first time. Microsoft rose 2.8 percent on Thursday, a day after it was awarded a contract worth up to $22 billion to make augmented reality goggles for the United States Army. Also sharply higher was Alphabet, which gained 3.3 percent. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.8 percent, bringing its gain over the past two days to more than 3 percent. The broader S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent, to 4,020.

Source: New York Times April 01, 2021 19:19 UTC