Traders Gregory Rowe, left, and Richard Newman confer on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.NEW YORK - An optimistic outlook for holiday spending from Macy's is sending the stock market back to record levels.
Macy's led other retailers higher with a 9 percent surge after reporting a quarterly profit that blew past Wall Street expectations. Bed, Bath & Beyond, J.C. Penney and Nordstrom also rose.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 71 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 15,821 points Wednesday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 14 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,782. Both are record highs. It's the 34th all-time closing high for the S&P 500 this year and the 36th for the Dow.
The Nasdaq composite index gained 45 points, 1.2 percent, to 3,965.
Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was average.