US STOCKS-Nasdaq ends at record high as Wall St rises with tech shares

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Biogen submits marketing application for Alzheimer's drug
* Allstate slips on $4 bln deal to buy National General
* Indexes: Dow up 0.7%, S&P 500 up 0.8%, Nasdaq up 1.4%

(Updates close with volume, other details)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
July 8 (Reuters) - U.S stocks rose on Wednesday and the
Nasdaq hit a record closing high, supported by technology shares
as early signs of an economic rebound offset concern about
further lockdowns due to a jump in coronavirus cases across the
country.
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O provided the
biggest boosts to the Dow and S&P 500, with the S&P 500
technology index .SPLRCT up 1.6% and leading sector gains. The
Nasdaq outpaced the other two major indexes, ending 1.4% higher,
led by Amazon.com AMZN.O , its fourth record closing high this
month.
The number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed 3
million, affecting nearly one of every 100 Americans.
California, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas
broke their previous daily record highs for new infections.
Investors have been weighing a string of upbeat economic
data including record job additions and a rebound in the service
sector in June, against the surge in U.S. coronavirus cases
recently, but the S&P 500 is still up more than 40% from its
March closing low.
"The market continues to ignore the potential consequences
of these spikes in new coronavirus cases," said Peter Cardillo,
chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New
York.
"It's overbought," he said. "While I don't expect this
market to crash... I think investors at this juncture are
playing with fire," he said, noting the rise in safe-haven gold
prices. XAU= GOL/
Adding to the optimistic tone late in the session, St. Louis
Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard told CNBC in an
interview that U.S. unemployment will likely decline to below 8%
"maybe even 7%" by the end of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 177.1 points,
or 0.68%, to 26,067.28, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 24.62 points,
or 0.78%, to 3,169.94 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
148.61 points, or 1.44%, to 10,492.50.
Markets also appeared to be in a wait-and-watch mode before
the beginning of the second-quarter earnings season, which kicks
off next week with reports from the big Wall Street banks.
Quarterly earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to
decline nearly 44% year-on-year, the steepest drop since the
2008 financial crisis, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Biogen Inc BIIB.O jumped 4.4% after the company said it
submitted the marketing application for its experimental
Alzheimer's disease therapy, aducanumab. Allstate Corp ALL.N shares fell 4.8% as the U.S. insurer
said it would buy National General Holdings Corp NGHC.O for
about $4 billion, scaling up its auto insurance business.
National General shares surged 65.8%. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.48-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.34-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 99 new highs and 18 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.40 billion shares, compared
with the 12.4 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.