Updated March 28, 2013, 12:38 p.m. ET
S&P 500 Breaks Above Closing High



By ALEXANDRA SCAGGS
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index hovered around its closing high set in 2007, after climbing solidly above that level late morning Thursday.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index continued to flirt with its record closing high of 1565.15 as investors weighed calm in Cyprus. Jonathan Cheng reports.


The push to record territory came in midmorning trading, as the S&P 500 broke past its previous record close of 1565.15 on Oct. 9, 2007. If it closes above there, it will join the Dow industrials in recouping all its losses from the financial crisis.
In recent trading, the S&P 500 gained two points, or 0.1%, to 1565, wavering around its record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 24 points, or 0.2%, to 14550, and the Nasdaq Composite index tacked on less than one point to 3257.
The S&P 500 had flirted with its closing record for two weeks before finally vaulting over that level Thursday. It had come within five points of the closing high in seven of the past 10 sessions.
"The market has been trying and trying, and we finally crossed the line," said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial, PRU -0.30%which manages roughly $1 trillion in assets. "Having the Dow reaching new highs was good, but the S&P 500 is broader, it's bigger… it's an important message for investors."
The S&P 500 still remains just off its all-time intraday high of 1576.09 on Oct. 11, 2007. After hitting that peak more than five years ago, the benchmark shed more than half its value during the financial crisis, sinking to a close of 676.53 on March 9, 2009.



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Reuters Traders work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The S&P 500 index broke through its record on Thursday.



Since then, it has climbed steadily higher on the back of rising corporate earnings by U.S. companies. The final leg higher for the S&P 500, an almost 10% rise in the first three months of this year, came despite a renewed flare-up of the euro-zone debt crisis. But as troubled euro-zone member Cyprus reopened its banks Thursday, there was little sense of panic, which calmed investor nerves and set the stage for the index's push into record territory.
"Confidence is being restored, not just among investors but among businesses and consumers," said Jason Ware, market strategist at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah. "They're feeling better about the world, the economy and the market. ... 2008 and 2009 were pretty difficult, but we've come a long way."
Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, said, "There seemed to be an air of inevitability to this. We're here on the back of stimulus, we're here on the back of no real alternatives for investors."
"Until there is a significant paradigm shift that will cause a reversal, the bulls have the swagger," he said.
The latest benchmark record caps off a strong first quarter for stocks. The blue chips, which hit a new high on March 5, were on track to notch their best first quarter since 1998 as of Wednesday's close, adding around 11%. The S&P 500 was up about 9.9% for the quarter. While the S&P 500's quarterly gains were outpaced by last year's 12% first-quarter gain, the index was set to mark its first five-month win streak since 2009.
Investors had been worried that the reopening of banks in Cyprus, after being closed for nearly two weeks amid negotiations on a bailout package, could lead to a widespread run on deposits. But while crowds did gather outside of banks before they reopened, investors were relieved to see there was little sign of panic.
"Banks in Cyprus are seeing more of a jog than any kind of run," said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist for LPL Financial.
But a reading on manufacturing in the Chicago area weighed on stocks, sparking a brief turn lower after a report on activity in March came in below expectations. A disappointing weekly reading on the labor market also offset the optimism.
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European markets traded mostly higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 gaining 0.7%, as the relative calm in Cyprus overshadowed mixed data out of Germany.
The number of jobless Germans rose 13,000 in March versus expectations of an unchanged reading, but February retail sales increased 0.4% on the month compared with expectations of a 0.6% decline. Germany's DAX 30 index tacked on 0.3%.
Meanwhile, Asian markets slumped, highlighted by a 2.8% tumble in China's Shanghai Composite after the country's banking regulator unveiled new controls on popular wealth-management products. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average shed 1.3% and Australia's S&P ASX 200 gave up 0.6%.
Crude-oil futures were mostly flat at $96.89 a barrel, while gold futures fell 0.6% to $1,598.20 a troy ounce. The dollar slipped against both the euro and the yen. Demand for Treasuries fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note rising to 1.859%.
In corporate news, Research In Motion BB.T +2.03%rose after the BlackBerry maker reported a surprise fourth-quarter profit.
Discount retailer Five Below FIVE -3.88%slid after the company forecast weak full-year results.
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