Fresh record highs for the both the S&P500 and Nasdaq after President Biden declared that the White House had struck an ~US$1 trillion infrastructure deal with a bipartisan group of senators that includes US$579B in new spending - Dow up +323-points or +0.95% to 34,196.82 and sit ~2.6% below its all-time record high. Caterpillar Inc rose +2.6%. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (up +2.13%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (+0.92%) advanced ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s annual bank stress test results after the closing bell. The broader S&P500 gained +0.58% to 4,266.49. The Nasdaq +0.69% to 14,369.71 and logging its 17th record close of 2021. Microsoft Corp rose +0.53% to US$266.69 after unveiling the first overhaul of its Windows operating system in almost 6-years. becoming just the second U.S. company to close a trading day with a market capitalisation above >US$2 trillion. Microsoft’s market value hit a 2020 low of US$1.03 trillion in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, according to Dow Jones Market Data, but the shares are up more than >96% from their closing low of US$135.42 on 16 March, 2020. The market-value gains for Microsoft since its March 2020 low are worth more than Facebook Inc’s (up +0.76%) entire market capitalisation (~US$973B). Apple Inc (down -0.22%) notched a market capitalisation of US$2 trillion for the first time in August last year and is now worth more than >US$2.2 trillion. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 gained +1.31%.
