[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite set record highs on Friday, and there was no stopping them from extending their reach into record territory today. For a moment, it looked like there might be some interference in that effort, yet a rush of buying interest in Apple (AAPL 205.17, +4.09, +2.03%) occurred in the afternoon session following a Bloomberg report that the company is considering using outside AI help to drive its new version of Siri.
Apple was trading just shy of $200 per share when that news hit but traded as high as $207.39 in its wake. That was a hefty load of market cap weight that ultimately fueled a move above 6,200 for the S&P 500 on the last trading day of a remarkable second quarter that saw the S&P 500 increase 10.6% and the Nasdaq Composite gain 17.8%. Those gains, though, don't even tell half the story. From their lows on April 7, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are up 28% and 38%, respectively.
Prior to the Apple news, today's session was filled with political news that was generally interpreted in a positive light.
The Senate passed a procedural vote over the weekend that paved the way for a full Senate vote late tonight or early tomorrow on its version of the "One Big, Beautiful Bill." That bill, among other things, will extend the 2017 tax cuts for all income levels and make those cuts permanent; it starts Medicaid work requirements beginning in December 2026, phases out solar and wind tax credits beginning in December 2026, raises the SALT deduction cap to $40,000 for people making $500,000 or less for a 5-year period, after which it reverts to $10,000, and increases the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
If the Senate passes the bill, which the CBO estimates will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, it will head to the House for review and set up the possibility of it being on the president's desk for signing by July 4. The comforting point for the stock market in all this was that the Treasury market didn't revolt over the CBO estimate. In fact, the Treasury market staged a minor rally that saw gains across the curve led by longer-dated maturities.
The 2-yr note yield dipped two basis points to 3.72%, and the 10-yr note yield dropped six basis points to 4.23%. Running alongside the developments pertaining to the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" were reports highlighting Canada's efforts to renew negotiations with the U.S. by dropping its digital services tax and speculation that other trade deals, including the possibility of one with the EU, could be announced soon.
Separately, it was welcome news for the capital markets to hear that the largest banks all passed the Federal Reserve's stress test. That news was released after Friday's close, and it paves the way for banks to announce capital return plans.
The investment banks, led by Dow component Goldman Sachs (GS 707.75, +16.94, +2.45%) reaching a record high of its own, paced the gains in the financials sector (+0.9%). The only other sector performing better than the financials sector today was information technology (+1.0%), which rallied around Apple and the AI trade tied to encouraging commentary out of Oracle (ORCL 218.63, +8.39, +3.99%) for its cloud business. For the quarter, the information technology sector gained 23.5%.
Most sectors ended higher today. The only two laggards were the consumer discretionary (-0.9%) and energy (-0.7%) sectors.
Reviewing today's data: