For the fourth day in a row, the three main U.S. indexes reached new record-highs on Thursday, primarily driven by gains in technology stocks.

Eight out of the eleven major S&P indexes increased. This increase was directed by the information technology sector, which got it’s advance from Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon.com (AMZN). Tech stocks have rose about 26% this year and have been leading much of the rally recently.

Thursday’s data steered to an underlying strength in the economy with the trade shortage ending during August and unemployment claims dropping more than expected. The focus will now move towards to the more complete monthly jobs report, due Friday.
Global stocks moved away from record highs on Thursday as minutes from the European Central Bank’s last meeting exposed policymakers were apprehensive about the euro’s quick ascent.

Investors are anxiously awaiting the upcoming third-quarter corporate earnings. Earnings of S&P 500 companies are projected to increase 5.5 percent in the quarter from the previous year. The increase is lowers than the previous two quarters, but many are hopeful that results will be better than expected.
As of 9:46 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 16.86 points or 0.07 percent, at 22,678.5.

The S&P 500 was up 4.39 points or 0.17 percent, at 2,542.13.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 22.88 points or 0.35 percent, at 6,557.51.

Shares of Constellation Brands increase by 3.4 percent after the brewer surpassed Wall Street’s profit estimates for the ninth straight quarter.

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Biogen up 4.6 percent after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the stock to “overweight”.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,657 to 839. On the Nasdaq, 1,452 issues increased and 924 decreased.