Nasdaq 100 hits intraday record high on recovery optimism

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq 100 on Thursday became the first U.S. equity index to reclaim its intraday record high as a reopening of the economy from coronavirus lockdowns powered a Wall Street rally following its stunning crash into a bear market in March.

Historic U.S. monetary and fiscal stimulus, as well as hopes of a faster economic recovery from a coronavirus-induced slump have lifted the three main indexes from multi-year lows, with tech-related stocks among the biggest gainers.

While a resurgence in U.S.-China tensions and fears of disruption from recent social unrest in the United States have tempered the pace of gains, investors have held out for an economic recovery with the latest set of data improving from its worst readings during the pandemic.

The NYSE FANG+TM Index <.NYFANG>, which includes Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), also hit a record high in morning trading.

"In this market, you need to be selective and technology continues to be one of our favorite sectors," said Larry Adam, chief investment officer at Raymond James in Baltimore.

"More and more people have become reliant on technology during this pandemic. And these companies still have a lot of cash on their balance sheet so that can lead to dividends, buybacks, capital expenditures and M&A activity."

The wider Nasdaq Composite index <.IXIC> is now just about 2% below its record high after crashing about 32% from that level in March. The S&P 500 <.SPX> and Dow Jones <.DJI> indexes are about 8% and 11% below their respective all-time highs.

(Reporting by Reuters markets team; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Shounak Dasgupta)

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