Wall Street Close: S&P 500 ekes out the highest level since Feb on tech stock surge

• S&P 500: 3,251.84, up 0.8%.
• Dow Jones industrial average: 26,680.87, up 0.1%.
• Nasdaq composite: 10,767.09, up 2.5%.

US benchmarks have all now exceeded the June highs following Monday's bull-trend extensions.

US stocks were erasing early losses as tech giants surged.

Investors also remained optimistic over the hopes for a vaccine as well as prospects of the next tranche of stimulus this week.

The consumer discretionary sector, which contains Amazon, led gains in the blue-chip index, rising nearly 2% intraday. 

Tech mega-caps including Apple  Microsoft, Netflix and Facebook all soared as investors continued crowding in popular stay-at-home trades.

AstraZeneca and Synairgen both revealed optimistic trial data for their experimental coronavirus vaccines, though only the latter's stock jumped.

Consequently, the S&P 500 ended +0.84% at 3,251.84, the Dow +0.03% at 26,680.93 and the Nasdaq was higher by 2.51% to finish at 10,767.09.

The next tranche of stimulus

US politicians will begin discussing the next tranche of stimulus this week and the Republicans are reportedly planning a $1 trillion package.

The Democrats are eyeing up something closer to $3.5 trillion.

The 11th hour

Meanwhile, as noted by analysts at ANZ bank, after the fourth day of talks, European Union leaders are reportedly close to hashing out the final details of the EUR750 billion emergency stimuli:

The Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Sweden (who have been sitting on the conservative side) are reportedly satisfied with the allocation of EUR390b in grants (down from EUR500b) and the remaining EUR360b becoming low interest loans.

However, the finer details are yet to be discussed and there is still a very real possibility that consensus cannot be reached across all aspects of the agreement, such as those relating to climate issues. Consensus among all 27 member states is required to forge ahead. 

 

Also looking forward, for Tuesday, officials from Merck (MRK), Moderna (MRNA), Pfizer (PFE), AstraZeneca (AZN) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) are set to testify on July 21 before the House Committee of Energy and Commerce to discuss their work in creating inoculations for COVID-19.

S&P 500 notes and levels

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