NEW YORK: Wall Street hit record levels on Thursday as market participants bet on more pandemic aid under a Democrat-controlled US Congress to help the economy ride out a steep downturn.

Economy-linked financials jumped 2.2% while industrial and materials sectors hovered near record highs on expectations that President-elect Joe Biden would line up a bigger fiscal package and boost infrastructure spending.

“You’re seeing a reflation trade on the assumption that a more progressive and aggressive fiscal stimulus packages could be in the offing,” said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at GlobAlt in Atlanta.

Rate-sensitive bank shares gained 3.2%, tracking a surge in the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield.

The S&P 500 technology, up 2.2%, was set to more than make up for its losses from a day earlier, when shares of some of the biggest technology companies dropped on fears of increased regulation.

The NYSE FANG+TM index, which includes the core FAANG group of stocks, gained about 2%.

At 10:18 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 269.28 points, or 0.88%, to 31,098.68, the S&P 500 gained 53.75 points, or 1.43%, to 3,801.89 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 261.18 points, or 2.06%, to 13,002.01.