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UPDATE 1-S&P 500 record close relegates COVID-19 sell-off to history books

Published 08/19/2020, 04:51 AM
Updated 08/19/2020, 05:00 AM
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(Updates with record close)
Aug 18 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 index closed at an all-time
high on Tuesday, 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 U.S. 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% since then. It makes the bear market
that started in late February the S&P 500's shortest
ever. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite .IXIC in June was the
first of the three major U.S. stock indexes to reclaim record
highs as investors gravitated to stocks including Amazon.com
AMZN.O and Netflix NFLX.O 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
U.S. corporate earnings.
On the day, the S&P 500 gained 0.23%. The Nasdaq gained
0.73%, hitting another high, and the Dow Jones Industrials,
which is still about 6% below its February highs, slipped 0.24%.
Of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the technology index
.SPLRCT , which includes Apple Inc AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , has climbed about 25% this year, while the consumer
discretionary .SPLRCD index, which includes Amazon, has jumped
23%.

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