S&P 500 Crosses 1,400 for First Time Since 2008, Dow Touches 4-Year High

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index crossed 1,400 for the first time in almost four years, with the stocks climbing following positive reports from the domestic front.

The S&P 500 finished up 8.3 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,403, closing at its highest level since June 5, 2008. The Nasdaq Composite was up 15.6 points, or 0.5 percent, at 3,056. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 58.7 points, or 0.4 percent, at 13,253.

In the Dow, the biggest rally was seen by Bank of America, whose share rose 4.5 percent to $9.24. Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co increased 2.6 percent to $44.70.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp rose for the seventh day increasing by 0.6 percent to touch $206. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. increased 6.3 percent to $8.25. Shares of Apple briefly touched $600 but finally went down 0.7 percent to $585.56.

The positive reports on the U.S. economy are seen as the major cause of the stocks rallying.

Following the higher than expected retail sales figures, announced earlier this week by the Commerce Department, the market seemed to be in a positive mood. Sales had climbed a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent to $407.8 billion last month.

The number of new applications for unemployment benefits has also come down indicating improvement in the labor market. The recent sustained run of stronger economic data, particularly on the labor market, indicates a possible GDP growth of 2 percent this year.