S&P 500, Dow Jump to Records After Deal on Greek Aid Extension

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U.S. stocks rose, sending benchmark indexes to records, after European officials reached a deal to extend Greece™s aid for four months.

The Standard & Poor™s 500 Index climbed 0.6 percent to a record 2,110.14 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 153.90 points, or 0.9 percent, to 18,139.67, also an all-time high. The Russell 2000 Index reached a record, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rallied 0.6 percent, up for an eighth straight day to its highest level since March 2000.

This is the first time the Dow has closed at a record this year. It™s been 56 days since the Dow™s last all-time high, reached on Dec. 26. When the S&P 500 reached its first record of 2015 last week, it had been 46 days since the previous one.

The Dow climbed to closing records on 38 days in 2014, and on 52 occasions in 2013 as the index recovered from the financial crisis to top its previous high from October 2007 for the first time.

The S&P 500 is up 0.6 percent for the holiday-shortened week after reaching a record reached Feb. 17. It has gained 2.5 percent this year, trailing all but three of the 24 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg.

Source : Bloomberg