NEW YORK: Rising optimism on the success of North American trade talks brought further joy to Wall Street on Wednesday, driving the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to close at new records for the fourth straight session.
The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 percent, closing at 26,124.57, while the broader S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to finish at 2,914.04.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped a full percentage point to end at 8,109.69.
US President Donald Trump joined Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in signaling that talks to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement were headed in the right direction.
"I think they're going really well," Trump said at the White House, as US and Canadian trade officials continued talks nearby to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Two days earlier, Trump had threatened to cut Ottawa out of a deal and proceed with Mexico alone.
Good economic news also buoyed stocks after the Commerce Department reported US GDP grew 4.2 percent in the second quarter, even stronger than initially reported due to a bump in business investment.
The upward revision made for unusually active trading in late August ahead of a holiday weekend.
Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments told AFP the recent bullish trend reflected the combination of strong corporate earnings, robust economic growth, tax cuts and fiscal stimulus.
"We have a very bullish fundamental backdrop, which has warranted higher stock prices," he said.
But Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities said Wednesday's upward momentum was largely due to "hopes of a breakthrough in the Canadian trade talks."
The Nasdaq powered higher on a rally in shares of Apple, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet.
Amazon and Alphabet shares soared 3.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, after Morgan Stanley raised its price targets for those stocks.
Google did not seem to suffer from Trump's latest attack on the company and threats to regulate the internet search engine.
Apple also rose 1.5 percent to an all-time high at $223.02 a share.
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