LIVE MARKETS-First to top, first to score fresh record highs?

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FIRST TO TOP, FIRST TO SCORE FRESH RECORD HIGHS?

U.S. stocks rose slightly on Thursday after a strong outlook from Oracle fueled optimism around artificial intelligence, offsetting worries about tension in the Middle East and a drop in Boeing shares.

Meanwhile, the NYSE composite .NYA, which topped ahead of the Dow industrials .DJI, Nasdaq composite .IXIC, S&P 500 .SPX, and Nasdaq 100 .NDX, is now the closest of these indexes to fresh record highs.

In any event, Oracle ORCL.N surged more than 13% to record highs after the cloud service provider raised its annual revenue growth forecast, driven by strong demand for its AI-related services.

With this, the Nasdaq composite added 0.24% on the day, while the S&P 500 index rose around 0.38%.

Boeing BA.N fell almost 5% after an Air India 787-8 Dreamliner jet crashed minutes after taking off in India's western city of Ahmedabad, killing more than 200 people.

Despite BA's 63 point drag on the Dow, the blue-chip average rose 102 points, or 0.24%, on the day.

Of note, the NYSE FANG index .NYFANG, which provides exposure to 10 of the day's highly traded tech giants including all of the Mag 7 stocks except Tesla TSLA.O, rose 0.45%, to finish at a record close.

The S&P 500 ended down just 1.6% from its February 19 record close, while the Nasdaq composite finished down 2.5% from its December 16 record close. The DJI ended down 4.6% from its December 4 record close.

Meanwhile, in terms of other closely followed indexes that are nearing record levels, the Nasdaq 100, which rose 0.24% on the day, finished down just 1.2% from its February 19 record finish.

The NYSE composite, which includes all common stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, including American depositary receipts, real estate investment trusts, tracking stocks, and foreign listings, rose about 0.4% on the day.

This puts this index down only 0.36% from its November 29 record finish. Thus, after topping ahead of the other indexes, the NYA certainly has the potential to be the first to score a fresh record finish vs other major indexes.

Here is a snapshot of where markets stood just shortly after 4 p.m. EDT:

(Terence Gabriel)

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