LIVE MARKETS-Little engines that thought they could but, not yet

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LITTLE ENGINES THAT THOUGHT THEY COULD BUT, NOT YET

The S&P 500 .SPX really seemed a lot like The Little Engine that Could during Thursday's session but it still ended the day roughly 3 points shy of its February 19 closing record. The Nasdaq composite .IXIC was on a similar track, coming so close but ultimately ending roughly 6 points below its December 16 closing record. Maybe they'll make it over the hill on Friday?

Some of the benchmark's biggest index point boosts on the day came from a handful of the Magnificent 7 crew - Amazon.com AMZN.O, Microsoft MSFT.O, Meta Platforms META.O, Nvidia NVDA.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O.

Broadcom AVGO.O was also in the mix as a top boost. And JPMorgan JPM.N was pulling its weight a day ahead of the annual stress test results for banks.

With that in mind the S&P 500 bank .SPXBK index quietly scored a record closing high.

Two of the Mag 7, Apple Inc AAPL.O and Tesla TSLA.O, were keeping a lower profile on Thursday, with Apple ending down 0.3% and TSLA dipping 0.5%.

A host of issues were still up in the air, like the US budget, which, in theory, could be resolved July 4, and U.S. trade policy, with a tariff pause set to expire the week after. But with an Iran-Israel ceasefire still holding, investors took a change on optimism.

Maybe they were encouraged by Federal Reserve officials discussing the possibility of rate cuts but their views were pretty mixed and careful.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin cautioned against taking options off the table and said he doesn't see tariffs being "as inflationary as a lot of people worry about."

Fed Governor Michael Barr said tariffs will likely increase inflation and could drive up unemployment, signaling that he wants to wait for more clarity before rate cuts.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said a muted tariff effect could help make the case for a rate cut this fall. This was after Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the Fed's wait-and-see stance regarding rate cuts.

Among the S&P's 11 major industry sectors, nine advanced with communications services .SPLRCL adding almost 1.8% and leading the pack while real estate .SPLRCR finished off 0.6%.

Speaking of little engines, small caps made a more impressive run than the large cap indexes on Thursday, with the Russell 2000 .RUT adding 1.7% for its highest close since late February.

Here is your closing snapshot:

(Sinéad Carew)

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