By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P closed at a record high Thursday as signs the consumer remains on solid footing and bullish earnings from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) prompted a wave of buying across stocks.
The S&P 500 rose 0.84%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.06% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 0.92%. All three major averages ended the day in record terriroty.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) rallied 6.6% as the Wall Street bank raised its profit outlook following results that beat on both the top and bottom lines. The earnings beat following a similar showing from rivals like JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) earlier this week.
The day of green was also supported by easing worries over the health of U.S. consumer, which has been one of the main catalysts underpinning economic growth, following in-line retail sales.
A weaker-than-expected sales report from Target (NYSE:TGT) a day earlier had raised doubts on the strength of the U.S. consumer over the crucial holiday period.
Still, some on Wall Street said the weaker report from Target may signal headwinds for Walmart (NYSE:WMT), which reports earnings next month.
"We don’t think WMT was immune to the headwinds TGT faced in the weaker product categories it called out, and it may also have been affected by the shorter holiday period," Morgan Stanley said.
Tech, meanwhile, remained red-hot thanks to gains in tech heavyweights like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Alphabet's advance into the close took its marketcap above $1 trillion for the first time, joining other tech stalwarts who have achieved the milestone such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).