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S&P 500 rally has it flirting with record high


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The S&P 500 index is again climbing to high-altitude levels and breathing rarefied air.

After kicking off the week with a solid rally, the broad U.S. stock gauge kicks off Tuesday's trading session within 1% of its record close of 2130.82 dating to May 21, 2015. In early trading the big-cap index was up nearly 4 points, or 0.17%, to 2113.

More than a year since notching its all-time high, the S&P 500 is in rally mode again, driven in large part to hints that the Federal Reserve will hold off on interest-rate hikes in June and possibly the entire summer.

The U.S. stock market is gaining momentum again. Three out of four stocks in the very broad S&P 1500 index — which includes large-cap names as well as mid-cap stocks and small-company names — are currently in an uptrend, according to Oppenheimer.

A sign of the large-company S&P 500’s renewed mojo is its breakout above the key 2,100 level, which has acted as a price ceiling since the large-company stock index retreated from its record highs.

Stocks have gotten a lift from the continued strength in energy prices. U.S.-produced crude rallied more than 2% Monday and closed just shy of $50 per barrel. Oil was back above $50 a barrel in early trading Tuesday.

If the S&P 500 can close in record territory, the other major stock indexes will have to play catch-up, as the Dow Jones industrial average is about 2% below its record, the Nasdaq is almost 5% shy and the small-company Russell 2000 index rremains down more than 9% from its record.

To confirm a rally is for real, Wall Street likes to see the other indexes join the party, as the broader and more inclusive the rally, the better.