U.S. stock benchmarks finished the session slightly higher on Wednesday, with the slight gains enough to notch a fresh all-time high for the S&P 500 index. Gains for the broad-market benchmark were driven by a surge in the energy sector, up 3%, and financials, 1.1% higher, to help the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX -0.72% eke out a 0.2% gain to reach 3,669, despite over 1% declines in materials and real estate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average /zigman2/quotes/210598065/realtime DJIA -0.57% finished 0.2% higher, as an 8.5% decline in Salesforce.com /zigman2/quotes/200515854/composite CRM -1.14% , after its announced $27.7 billion buy of Slack Technologies /zigman2/quotes/212180539/composite WORK -0.29% was officially announced late Tuesday, was offset by gains in Boeing Co. /zigman2/quotes/208579720/composite BA -2.66% , Goldman Sachs /zigman2/quotes/209237603/composite GS -2.23% , Walt Disney Co. /zigman2/quotes/203410047/composite DIS -1.15% , Chevron Corp. /zigman2/quotes/205871374/composite CVX -3.56% , American Express Co. /zigman2/quotes/203805826/composite AXP -1.32% and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. /zigman2/quotes/203410933/composite WBA -0.81% . The Nasdaq Composite, however, finished less than 0.1% lower at 12,349. Markets turned positive late in the session after Democratic congressional leaders threw their weight behind a coronavirus fiscal stimulus proposal that has bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress on Wednesday. In economic reports, U.S. businesses created 307,000 private-sector jobs in November, ADP said Wednesday, marking the smallest increase in four months and suggesting a record increase in coronavirus cases has hurt hiring. Markets have mostly been trending higher on the back of vaccines to fight COVID-19. That said, an account of business conditions from the Federal Reserve's business districts, the Beige Book, indicated that worry about economic expansion without fresh economic relief was weighing on activity.
Add to watchlist
DJIA
Add to watchlist
CRM
Add to watchlist
WORK
Add to watchlist
DIS
Add to watchlist
CVX
Add to watchlist
AXP
Add to watchlist
WBA
