Wall St: S&P 500 nears record high on stimulus hopes, strong earnings

Senate unveils $1 trillion infrastructure bill; Square rises on $29 billion Afterpay deal

The S&P 500 index neared a record high on Monday as a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and strong second-quarter corporate earnings lifted sentiment ahead of a deluge of macroeconomic data this week.

All 11 S&P indexes were trading higher, with consumer discretionary and financial stocks leading gains.

Shares of Square Inc, the payments firm of Twitter Inc co-founder Jack Dorsey, rose 3.6% after it said it would purchase Australian buy now, pay later pioneer Afterpay Ltd for $29 billion.

Afterpay's Australia-listed stock surged 18.8%.

Trillions of dollars in stimulus have lifted Wall Street to record highs following the coronavirus-driven crash last year, while upbeat