S&P 500 nabs record close | Robinhood’s 24% surge | Microsoft’s vaccine mandate
EDITOR'S NOTE
The S&P 500 pulled a rabbit out of the hat, so to speak, when it surged to a new record high in the final minutes of trading after spending much of the morning in the red.
The benchmark advanced 0.8% to 4,423.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 278.24 points, or 0.8%, to end the day at 35,116.40. At the lows of the session, the 30-stock benchmark shed more than 100 points.
The Nasdaq Composite, meantime, rose about 0.5% to 14,761.29.
Ten out of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed in the green, with energy leading the way after gaining about 1.8%. The sole decliner was Communication Services.
"Stocks have managed to escape a sizeable sell-off so far this summer. The S&P 500 hasn't fallen 3% or more from a record high since May, on track for what could be the third time in history when the index hasn't dropped 3% or more from a record high in the summer," noted Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest.
Still, she warned that after recent strength investors should stay on their toes.
"But the tide may be changing. August is the third worst performing month of the year, and it typically comes with increased volatility. Add to that the probability of lower volumes with people eager to take vacations before school starts back up," she added.
So far the major averages are higher for August. But of course, we're just two trading days in, and there's plenty of time to reverse those gains... or build on them.
 Elsewhere in the market, Robinhood shares jumped on Tuesday. The stock finished the session at $46.80 for a gain of 24.2%, blowing past the IPO price of $38.
The company went public last Thursday amid a lot of fanfare, but posted a lackluster first day of trading. Today's action demonstrates that anyone who dismissed the stock at that point perhaps did so prematurely.
Finally, Microsoft is the latest company to mandate that employees in U.S. offices be vaccinated. The tech giant said it will move back its office reopening to Oct. 4 at the earliest. The company had previously planned to reopen its doors on Sept. 7.
The move follows similar announcements from Facebook and Google, both of which have also said that employees must be vaccinated to return to the office. TOP NEWS
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