Another milestone: S&P 500 closes above 2,000

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed a hair above 2,000 points Tuesday, 16 years after it closed above 1,000 points for the first time.

The milestone added to the market's gains from the day before and extended the stock index's record-shattering run this year.

The S&P 500 rose 2.10 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 2,000.02. Seven of the index's 10 sectors gained, led by energy stocks. Utilities declined the most.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 29.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,106.70 Tuesday. The Nasdaq composite gained 13.29 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,570.64.

The S&P 500, a widely followed barometer of the stock market, has closed at a new high 30 times this year. By this time last year, it had done so 25 times. The index briefly rose past 2,000 Monday, but closed just below it.

"There's perhaps a small psychological boost when you get over such a significant price level," said Cameron Hinds, regional chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank.

U.S. stocks, in the midst of a five-year rally, have surged in the final weeks of the summer. The latest flurry of shattered market benchmarks comes as investors cheered new indications that the economy was strengthening, setting the stage for stronger company earnings.

A string of record highs isn't unusual when a market is recovering from a downturn, said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones.

"Markets don't climb sharply," Warne said. "They tend to climb slowly, and that's probably good news for a continued climb in the future."

Major U.S. indexes began in positive territory in premarket trading Tuesday, a trend that held as investors began to digest the latest economic reports.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose this month to the highest point in nearly seven years.

A separate report showed that orders of durable manufactured goods surged by a record 22.6 percent in July, thanks to a jump in aircraft sales. A third report showed U.S. home prices rose in June, although at a slower pace.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.39 percent. U.S. crude for October delivery rose 51 cents, to $93.86 a barrel. Gold rose $6.30, to $1,285.20 an ounce.

Amazon rose $7.81, or 2.3 percent, to $341.83, after saying it would buy the video-streaming company Twitch for $970 million.

Best Buy fell $2.19, or 6.8 percent, to $29.80, after the electronics retailer reported that its fiscal second-quarter net income plunged 45 percent as sales weakened.