April 30, 2013-Stocks Close Higher Setting New Record Highs for the S&P

After recovering from an early move to the downside, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. While buying interest was somewhat subdued, the S&P 500 still ended the day at a new record closing high. The major averages all ended the day in positive territory, with the Nasdaq outperforming its counterparts amid a strong gain by Apple (AAPL). While the Nasdaq advanced 21.77 points or 0.7 percent to a new twelve-year closing high of 3,328.79, the S&P 500 edged up 3.96 points or 0.3 percent to 1,597.57 and the Dow inched up 21.05 points or 0.1 percent to 14,839.80. The strength that emerged on Wall Street came on the heels of the release of a report from the Conference Board showing a substantial rebound in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of April. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 68.1 in April from an upwardly revised 61.9 in March. Economists had expected the index to climb to 62.0 from the 59.7 originally reported for the previous month.