Dow and S&P 500 hit new records | Retail sales boom in March | New jobless claims plunged

THU, APR 15, 2021

EVENING BRIEF

AS OF THU, APR 15, 2021 • 04:52 ET

DJIA		34035.99
		+0.90%	+305.10

S&P 500		4170.42
		+1.11%	+45.76

NASDAQ		14038.76
		+1.31%	+180.92

Most Active

DOW
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
AAPL	134.50	+2.47	+1.87%
MSFT	259.50	+3.91	+1.53%
INTC	65.02	+0.83	+1.29%

S&P 500
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
BAC	38.74	-1.14	-2.86%
AAPL	134.50	+2.47	+1.87%
AMD	83.01	+4.46	+5.68%

NASDAQ
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
AAPL	134.50	+2.47	+1.87%
AMD	83.01	+4.46	+5.68%
TSLA	738.85	+6.62	+0.90%

EDITOR'S NOTE

The stock market set a new round of record highs on Thursday on the heels of blowout retail sales numbers and another set of strong earnings reports.

The S&P 500 and Dow reached record levels, rising 1.1% and 0.9%, respectively, with the 30-stock index closing above 34,000 for the first time.

Yet the outperformers on Thursday weren't the bank stocks with impressive results or the retailers benefitting from an economic boom, but Big Tech.

The Invesco QQQ Trust rose 1.5%, easily outpacing the broader market, and is now up 7% so far this month. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3%.

"The rebound in the large-cap tech space has been noteworthy," said Yung-Yu Ma, the chief investment strategist for BMO Wealth Management. "Certainly there is an argument for small-caps to do well, value to do well, for the stimulus providing an economic acceleration that leads to a very favorable tailwind for the small cap space in particular ... but in the past few weeks we've seen the large caps rebound nicely."

This has come despite worries around regulation coming from Washington, where politicians from both sides of the aisle continue to rattle their sabers over influence of Big Tech.

"It remains the case that these businesses, the megacap tech companies, are very strong and their reach into various aspects of the economy continues to grow," Ma added.

Some notable winners in the tech space on Thursday include Apple and Alphabet, rising 1.9%, and Salesforce climbing more than 2%. Chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices each jumped more than 5%.