Wall Street resumed its advance on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closer to record closing highs as the Israel-Iran cease-fire continued to hold and a raft of economic indicators appeared to support the case for the U.S. Federal Reserve lowering borrowing costs this year, News.Az reports citing Reuters.
A broad rally pushed all three major U.S. stock indexes higher, placing them on track for weekly gains.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are now within striking distance of all-time closing highs, while the Nasdaq 100, a subset of the Nasdaq Composite, notched its second consecutive record closing high on Wednesday.
"Aside from some broad momentum and some key technical levels, the market is buoyed by some of the economic data this morning," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky.
Bank stocks outperformed after the Fed unveiled a proposal to relax its leverage rules, which would ease the capital big banks are required to hold against relatively low-risk assets.
The S&P 500 banks index advanced 1.7%.
"This administration came in promising deregulation," Mayfield added. "And this is not just an example of that, but kind of a signpost that there could be more to come."
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin cautioned against taking options off the table amid ongoing economic uncertainty, but added that he did not expect tariffs to be "as inflationary as a lot of people worry about."
