Tech stocks drive the market higher with mega-cap giants Apple and Amazon leading the way

Tech stocks drive the market higher with mega-cap giants Apple and Amazon leading the way

US stocks edged higher on Thursday, driven by a more than 1% gain in mega-cap tech giants , , and . The gains helped send the S&P 500 to just 1% below its record high of 4,393, having recovered all of its losses from Monday's 2% decline. Microsoft surged to a record high ahead of its earnings results next Tuesday. The software giant received a street-high price target of $378 from Citi, representing potential upside of more than 30% from current levels. Stocks were initially weak Thursday morning after worse than expected weekly jobless claims data was released, with 419,000 Americans well above the estimate of 350,000. Continuing claims, which measure the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits, stood at 3.2 million, slightly down from last week's revised figure of 3.265 million. The weekly jobless claims come amid an ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but also as the Delta variant is quickly spreading among the unvaccinated. Consumer-goods company revealed a surge in commodity costs that will likely cut into its profit margins. The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday of a central bank digital currency. Guggenheim's Scott Minerd thinks there , according to an interview with Bloomberg. Minerd