Wall Street climbed, pushing the S&P 500 to a record high, as merger and acquisition activity helped underpin optimism that corporations still find value at these levels.
In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.25 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.48 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.67 per cent. The S&P 500 touched a record high 2,051.25.
"Consumer and investor sentiment is pretty positive at the moment," Omar Aguilar, the San Francisco-based chief investment officer of equities at Charles Schwab Investment Management, told Bloomberg News.
Advances in shares of UnitedHealth and those of Intel, up 1.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively, helped propel the Dow higher.
The latest merger and acquisition deals helped buoy the mood. On Monday, Actavis said it would buy Allergan for US$66 billion, while Halliburton announced its US$34.6 billion takeover of Baker Hughes.