S&P 500, Dow average heading for record highs

8/26/2014

NEW YORK — Encouraging economic news is sending the stock market further into record territory.

A surge in consumer confidence helped push the Standard & Poor’s 500 past 2,000 for the second consecutive day. The index closed just short of that milestone on Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average was on track for its own record high.

At midday, the S&P 500 was up six points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,004.

The Dow rose 67 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,143. The Nasdaq rose 14 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,572.

Amazon rose 3 percent after saying it would buy Twitch, a video streaming company.

Best Buy slumped 5 percent after profits plunged at the consumer electronics store chain.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.39 percent.