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The stock market exhibited upside action today, extending Friday's rally. The S&P 500, which traded above its 50-day moving average (5,130) today after closing just below that level on Friday, gained 1.0% and settled at its best level since April 11. The Nasdaq Composite closed 1.2% higher, the Russell 2000 rose 1.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average registered a 0.5% gain.

The major indices traded in relatively narrow ranges through most of the day until buying picked up with about 30 minutes left in the session, propelling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to fresh intraday highs. Upside moves were broad based, leading the equal-weighted S&P 500 to close 0.8% higher.

Gains in the mega cap and semiconductor space provided a boost to the broader market and drove a 1.4% gain in the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) and a 2.2% gain in the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX).

Meta Platforms (META 465.68, +13.72, +3.0%), NVIDIA (NVDA 921.40, +33.51, +3.8%), Microsoft (MSFT 413.54, +6.88, +1.7%), Amazon.com (AMZN 188.70, +2.49, +1.3%), and Eli Lilly (LLY 766.68, +31.71, +4.3%) were among the influential winners today. These names comprise nearly 20% of the S&P 500.

Some of the aforementioned names propelled their respective S&P 500 sectors to the top of the leaderboard today. The information technology (+1.5%) and communication services (+1.4%) sectors logged the largest gains. Five sectors gained at least 1.0% today and only one sector closed lower. The real estate sector (-0.02%) settled fractionally lower than Friday's settlement.

Calm action in Treasuries today contributed to the positive bias in the stock market. The 10-yr note yield settled one basis point lower at 4.49% and the 2-yr note yield settled one basis point higher at 4.82%.

There was no U.S. economic data of note today.

Looking ahead, the March Consumer Credit report will be released tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. ET.