Wednesday's early trade: S&P inches toward record high on tech boost

NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes jumped on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 crawling towards a record high in a broad rally led by tech stocks, although some investors were cautious following a stalemate over the new coronavirus relief bill.

Heavyweights Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc were some of the top boosts to the S&P 500.

All major S&P sectors climbed, with technology, communication services and health leading percentage gains.

The S&P 500 is about 0.5% below its intraday record high of 3,393.52. The benchmark index slipped after seven straight days of gains on Tuesday after coming within 0.4% of its peak, powered by historic fiscal and monetary stimulus and signs of a nascent economic recovery.

The Nasdaq was the first of the three major indexes to bounce back to an all-time high in June. The Dow is about 6% below its February peak.

At 10:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 273.31 points, or 0.99%, at 27,960.22, the S&P 500 was up 44.11 points, or 1.32%, at 3,377.80. The Nasdaq Composite was up 200.03 points, or 1.86%, at 10,982.86.

Tesla Inc jumped 8.4%, providing the biggest lift to Nasdaq, as it announced a five-for-one stock split in an attempt to make its shares more accessible to employees and investors.