NEW YORK -- Wall Street's rally got back on track Wednesday after more gains for big technology stocks helped pull the S&P 500 to its sixth gain in seven days.
The S&P 500 drifted up and down for most of the day, before a last-hour lift sent it to a gain of 0.78%. Treasury yields and oil prices also ticked higher, but caution continued to hang over markets as gold touched its highest price since 2011.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 177.10 points, or 0.68%, to 26,067.28. The Nasdaq composite gained 148.61 points, or 1.44%, to hit 10,492.50, setting another record. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 24.62 points, to 3,169.94, and is back within 6.4% of its record.
Wednesday's up-and-down trading was reminiscent of the market's moves over the past month, when Wall Street has largely churned in place. Optimism is rising about a reopening economy, but worsening coronavirus infection levels across much of the U.S. South and West threaten to derail the budding economic improvements.
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Several very early indicators on the economy may also be flashing yellow, such as airport traffic and dine-in reservations at restaurants, as some states roll back their reopenings, said Katie Nixon, chief investment officer at Northern Trust Wealth Management.
That could be driving investors back into the comfort of what has served them so well for years: big tech-oriented stocks. Such stocks have continued to climb as investors bet they'll be able to grow regardless of what the economy is doing.
Amazon added 2.7%, Apple rose 2.3% and Microsoft gained 2.2%. Because of their immense size, those three stocks alone were responsible for more than half the S&P 500's gain for the day.
"It's sort of like: Buy what feels safe, even though you know you're maybe overpaying for it," Nixon said. "But it's better than betting on a recovery that's maybe going to be slower than expected, particularly given the fact that we're seeing a spike in cases in some major areas of the United States."
Such strength for technology stocks is raising some concerns, though.
"The Nasdaq is screaming warning signs that there's rampant speculation" after expectations have built so high, said Andrew Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
"I would be very cautious on some of these companies," he said. "The worst thing in the world is to own companies that have just gone hyperbolic."
Roughly two in five stocks in the S&P 500 fell Wednesday, with several chemical- and construction-related companies taking the hardest hits.
Few headline economic reports are left on the schedule for this week, other than today's update on weekly jobless claims. Next week may have more action, when a couple of dozen companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report their earnings results for the second quarter.
Gold for delivery in July rose $11.30 to settle at $1,815.50 per ounce. The more actively traded contract for August delivery neared $1,830 during the day, the highest level since September 2011.
Treasury yields ticked higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.65% from 0.64%. It tends to move with investors' expectations for the economy and inflation.
In Asian stock markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.6% and South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2%.
In Europe, the German DAX lost 1%, and France's CAC 40 dropped 1.2%. The FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.5%.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 28 cents to settle at $40.90 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 21 cents to $43.29 a barrel.
Information for this article was contributed by Yuri Kageyama of The Associated Press.
