US markets all jumped in unison behind the Dow Jones, which added 1%, the Nasdaq 0.7% and the S&P 500, up 0.6% with the latter two being more record closes.
Overnight it was all about infrastructure stimulus, with President Biden announcing a pared-back spending package totalling around US$600 billion which would be directed to the country’s ailing physical infrastructure, public transport and water pipes.
There were also positive signs for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) with charging stations an important plank of the package, sending shares 3.5% higher.
Despite the seemingly expensive valuations of companies in the sector, including Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), industrial companies rallied most strongly.
On the other hand, employment data was weaker than expected with unemployment benefits printing at 411,000, a slight improvement from 412,000 the week prior and worse than 380,000 estimated.
Finally, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) confirmed it would be holding off on the banning of third party cookies from its browser for several years. Alphabet shares finished 0.3% higher, while programmatic advertiser Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) surged 16% on the news.
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US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks performed overnight.
- Farfetch (NYSE: FTCH) up 6.0%
- Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PPD) up 5.0%
- Spotify (NASDAQ: SPOT) up 2.9%
- Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) down 1.4%
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) down 1.6%
- Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) down 6.1%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to follow US markets higher at the open on Friday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.