NEW YORK: The S&P 500 on Tuesday rose for an eighth straight session and was within striking distance of its February peak, a level last seen before the onset of the coronavirus crisis that caused one of Wall Street's most dramatic crashes in history.

The benchmark index was about half a percent below the all-time high it hit on Feb. 19, when investors started dumping shares in anticipation of what proved to be the biggest slump in the US economy since the Great Depression.

Ultra-low interest rates, trillions of dollars in stimulus and, more recently, a better-than-feared second-quarter earnings season have allowed all three of Wall Street's main indexes to recover.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq has led the charge, boosted by "stay-at-home winners" Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Apple Inc. The index was down about 0.1%. The blue-chip Dow surged 1%, coming within 5% of its February peak.

Value stocks have outperformed tech-focused growth stocks recently, reflecting market's confidence in improving economic outlook. On Tuesday, the Russell 1000 value index rose 0.9%, while the Russell 1000 growth index edged up 0.1%.

At 12:41 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 was up 16.01 points, or 0.48%, at 3,376.48, about 17 points shy of its high of 3,393.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 270.59 points, or 0.97%, at 28,062.03, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 10.45 points, or 0.10%, at 10,978.81.