Wall Street hits new highs in rally led by tech stocks, breaking a record dating back to March 2000

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Traders scramble to fill their orders as Wall Street surged to new highs on the back of strong tech stocks. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:50am, 20 Jul 2017Updated: 7:50am, 20 Jul 2017

The major US stock indexes closed at record highs on Wednesday helped partly by technology stocks which surpassed a long-standing mark, despite gains on the Dow being capped by a sharp drop in IBM shares.

The S&P 500 tech sector broke its previous record closing high that had held since March 2000 in the midst of the dot-com and Y2K tech stocks bubble era. It has been the best-performing sector this year with a 22.8 per cent advance.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve raised its second-quarter GDP estimate by one-tenth of a percentage point to a 2.5 per cent annualised rate after data showed US homebuilding surged to a four-month high in June. The economy grew at a 1.4 per cent pace in the first quarter.

“Markets are focused on fundamentals, and earnings and the economy are underpinning equities,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

A screen displays trading information for German insurance firm Allianz on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Reuters

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 66.02 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 21,640.75, the S&P 500 gained 13.22 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 2,473.83 and the Nasdaq Composite added 40.74 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 6,385.04.

The Dow, S&P, Nasdaq and the small-cap Russell 2000 indexes all set record closing highs.