Wall Street jumps, S&P 500 crawls towards record high on stimulus hopes

Wall Street's main indexes jumped on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 crawling towards a record high in a broad rally led by tech stocks, although some investors were cautious following a stalemate over the new coronavirus relief bill.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the White House and top Democrats in Congress may not be able to reach a deal on coronavirus aid, marking a fifth day without talks, as the stalemate blocked relief to tens of millions of Americans.

The S&P 500 is about 0.9 per cent below its intraday record high of 3,393.52. The benchmark index snapped seven