Tech stocks brushed new record highs during midday Wednesday, as a fresh wave of blockbuster corporate earnings propelled mega-cap technology and speculative names higher.

Across U.S. equity markets, gains were broad-based but concentrated in large-cap growth. The S&P 500 rose 0.85% to 7,123, now 25 points shy of its all-time intraday high at 7,148 set last Friday.

At last check, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added over 272 points, or 0.55%, to 49,422. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed with a 1.5% advance to new records at 26,884, on pace for its best session of the week.

Within Magnificent Seven stocks:

  • Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 2.8% as investors continued to digest John Ternus stepping in as incoming CEO
  • Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) each added more than 1%
  • Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) climbed 1.46%
  • Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) inched 0.8% higher ahead of its after-the-bell earnings report.

The small-cap Russell 2000 lagged with a more modest 0.5% gain.

WTI crude surged 3.8% to $93.06 a barrel in a counterintuitive move, as the Strait of Hormuz remained blockaded despite the diplomatic thaw and President Trump’s ceasefire extension.

Wednesday’s Performance In Major US Indices

Index Last % Change
S&P 500 7,121.06 +0.8%
Dow Jones 49,493.62 +0.7%
Nasdaq 100 26,821.13 +1.3%
Russell 2000 2,777.82 +0.5%

Updated by 12:15 PM ET

According to the Benzinga Pro platform:

  • The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) rose 0.8%.
  • The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) gained 0.7%.
  • The Invesco QQQ Trust 

Full story available on Benzinga.com