S&P 500 on Cusp of Historic 4,000 Level as Tech Leads Advance By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 remained close to its intraday record high on Wednesday, led by a jump in growth stocks as investors swooped in to take advantage of beaten down tech stocks.

The rose 0.74%, easing from its record intraday high of 3,994.03, the rose 0.10%, or 33 points, the was up 1.79%.

Tech is down 5% from its recent February high, but is set to end the quarter in the green as investors appeared to renew their bets on the high-flying sector ahead of the next round of quarterly reports.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:), and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:), with latter getting an extra boost following an upgrade from UBS.

UBS raised its rating on Apple to buy from neutral, citing steady long-term iPhone demand and higher average sales price.

But it wasn’t only megacap tech that attracted a wave of buying. Chip stocks climbed 3% led by a jump in Applied Materials (NASDAQ:) as Bernstein talked up the growth prospects for the sector.

Bernstein initiated coverage on Applied Materials at outperform, betting that “growth trends in the underlying semi market [are] likely to remain positive over the long term.”

Consumer discretionary stocks also played a role in pushing the broader market to record intraday highs, powered by Tesla (NASDAQ:) and apparel company Phillips-Van Heusen Corp.

PVH Corp (NYSE:) jumped 6% despite the company reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue late-Tuesday that fell short of Wall Street estimates.

The economic backdrop, meanwhile, continues to spur investor optimism as the economy created 515,000 private jobs last month, just shy of the 550,000 expected, but the gain serves as a good omen for nonfarm payrolls report due Friday.

The economy could potentially be in line to receive another stimulus-led boost as President Joe Biden is set to unveil a two-part stimulus plan later on Wednesday. The first, about $2 trillion, will focus on infrastructure and clean energy, and a second will be focused on domestic and social issues.

But there are already grumbles from lawmakers on the opposite side of the political aisle, who are wary of further spending — following $5.7 trillion of Covid-19 relief measures rolled out over the past year — and are unlikely to back the tax hikes needed to fund the bill.

Energy, down nearly 1%, lagged the broader market’s advance as oil prices fell below $60 a barrel on fears over global demand after France widen lockdowns nationwide following a spike in Covid-19 hospitalizations. The swing lower in oil comes ahead of OPEC’s decision on output quotas for May. Many are expecting no change to output.

Oil prices were also swayed by data showing U.S. weekly inventories slipped by 876,000 barrels last week, confounding economists’ forecast for a build of 107,000 barrels.