NEW YORK, Aug 19 — The S&P 500 index closed at an all-time high yesterday, completing its recovery from the stock market crash after the onset of the coronavirus crisis in February.
The index ended at 3,389.78 points, above the previous record close of 3,386.15 on Feb 19. Earlier it topped the old intraday high of 3,393.52 hit the same day, further underlining the disconnect between a rally driven by trillions of dollars in government stimulus and a recession-hit US economy.
The record confirms, according to a widely accepted definition, that Wall Street’s most closely followed index entered a bull market after hitting its pandemic low on March 23. It has surged about 55 per cent since then. It makes the bear market that started in late February the S&P 500’s shortest ever.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite in June was the first of the three major US stock indexes to reclaim record highs as investors gravitated to stocks including Amazon.com and Netflix seen as stay-at-home winners from Covid-19 lockdowns.
It has taken the benchmark S&P 500 about two months longer as surging Covid-19 cases sparked fears of another round of shutdowns that would again cripple business activity and crush US corporate earnings.
On the day, the S&P 500 gained 0.23 per cent. The Nasdaq gained 0.73 per cent, hitting another high, and the Dow Jones Industrials, which is still about 6 per cent below its February highs, slipped 0.24 per cent.
Of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the technology index , which includes Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp , has climbed about 25 per cent this year, while the consumer discretionary index, which includes Amazon, has jumped 23 per cent. — Reuters