The S&P 500 climbed to a new record high on Tuesday, rising above the previous all-time intraday and closing highs set before the pandemic hit the U.S. stock market and economy.
The broad index of large public U.S. companies has been hovering just below that record high for over a week. On Tuesday morning, it rose three-tenths of a percentage point to 3,395.06, about 0.045 above the February 19 intraday record of 3,393.52.
The new record high was not maintained for long. Shortly after, the index slipped below that level and into negative territory for the day.
But the market turned around again and the S&P closed at 3389.78, the all-time best close.
Communications services and consumer discretionary were the best sectors of the S&P 500 in morning trading on Tuesday. Consumer discretionary rose 1.5 percent. Communications services rose 1.09 percent. Information technology rose 0.39 percent.