In a remarkable rebound from the depths of March, the S&P 500 clawed back the last of its coronavirus induced losses to close at a record high on Tuesday.
The index - a proxy for the performance of retirement and college savings plans - ended the session 7.79 points higher to close at 3,389.78.
The modest move was enough to top the benchmark index's previous closing record of 3,386.15 set on February 19 - before lockdowns shuttered businesses, threw tens of millions of Americans out of work and plunged the United States into its deepest recession since the Great Depression.
Since plumbing the depths of investor despair in March, the S&P 500 has come roaring back some 50 percent, marking out those dark days of February - when the US officially entered a recession - and March as the shortest, sharpest bear market on record.
The index's remarkable comeback is a testament to the healing powers of stimulus - trillions of dollars of which have been thrown at the pandemic in the form of lending facilities from the Federal Reserve and lavish spending by Congress on virus relief aid.
Green shoots of economic recovery have helped nurture appetites for US stocks. But investors have been most ravenous for technology shares that have benefitted from the shift to remote work and changing consumer patterns in the wake of the pandemic.
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook have been key driver of the S&P 500s more than 50 percent rally since March.
The index's component companies are weighted by their market capitalisation - the total value of outstanding shares.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite posted yet another record on Tuesday, ending the session up 81.12 points at 11,210.84.
Bucking the plus side trend was the Dow Jones Industrial Average - which weights its components by price as opposed to market capitalisation. The Dow ended Tuesday's session down 66.84 points to close at 27,778.0 and remains 6 percent below its record set in February.
Wall Street - Main Street divide
The S&P 500s rapid recovery is in stark contrast to Main Street where the real economy is still digging out of its coronavirus hole.
Millions of Americans are currently collecting unemployment benefits, and businesses across the country are still shutting their doors and laying off workers as infections remain stubbornly high in parts of the US, sowing uncertainty into the outlook.
But the stock market has shrugged off the real economy's struggles and a lot of uncertainty about the path of the pandemic.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics last week reported that the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits with states fell below one million for the first time since March.
Goldman Sachs analysts on Sunday raised their S&P 500 year-end price target to 3,600 from 3,000, but injected a note of caution, warning that uncertainty surrounding the US election "represents a significant risk to our year-end forecast".
The US economic recovery is facing other potential headwinds, including stalled negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over a new round of virus relief. Escalating tensions between the US and China could also hamper the recovery.
