Stocks were broadly higher in confident buying, bolstered by the Federal Reserve's caution over raising rates and a handful of new merger deals.
At the closing bell the broad-market S&P 500 index was up 9.54 points (0.48 percent) at 1,997.94. The intraday peak, a record, was 2,001.95.
The narrower blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 75.65 points (0.44 percent) to 17,076.87, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 18.80 (0.41 percent) to 4,557.35, its highest level since the dot-com crash 14 years ago.