S&P Record Close

Commence modest levels of rational exuberance:

WSJ
The S&P 500 rallied to a new record close today, a long seven years since its last record close of 1527.46, on March 24, 2000. It had flirted with the record for several days, but when all eyes were on the index, it hit resistance and was never able to make that last push higher. It fell back in the past few sessions, and the record talk receded.

But amid an optimistic reading of the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes and despite a market meltdown in Shanghai, the broad stock index unexpectedly sailed over the hump near the end of the session to close at a new high mark.

"While there are a lot of indexes, the S&P 500 is the best measure of the total market," said John Bogle, founder of mutual-fund giant Vanguard Group Inc. "I don't think one should ascribe too much to it," he said, but "it suggests that American business is worth a lot more than it was some years ago -- and I'm sure that's the case."

The S&P 500 gained 12.12 to 1530.23, surging over its record-closing level in the last hour of the day.

Posted by jk at May 30, 2007 4:41 PM