S&P 500 Hits First Record of the Year
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With record levels of dry powder available for investment, find out what's in store for private markets in 2025 and beyond. Listen to Crafting Capital in partnership with UBS at partners.wsj.com slash UBS, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Here's your closing bell brief for Thursday, January 23rd. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. The S&P 500 hit its first record of 2025 today.

The major index rose 32 points, about half a percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 408 points, almost a percent, to close at 44,565. And the Nasdaq advanced 44 points. A strong start to earnings season and President Trump's support for tax cuts and deregulation have buoyed stocks to start the year.

The market got another boost this week when Trump and tech leaders unveiled the $500 billion Stargate project, reinvigorating investors' enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. Trump also made fresh tariff threats during a video call with business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying companies that don't make their products in the U.S. could be targeted. In individual companies today...

UnitedHealthcare named Tim Noel as its new CEO after the killing of Brian Thompson last month. Stock in its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, rose almost 2%. Shares in GE Aerospace surged 6.6% after a strong earnings report. The jet engine maker beat Wall Street estimates on quarterly profit and revenue and ended 2024 with fourth quarter orders up 46%.

And stock in American Airlines tumbled 8.7% after the carrier predicted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss. The company's finance chief told the Journal that new labor contracts and reduced flying capacity are pushing up costs. We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker, or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In the modern enterprise, the CIO is more than just a technology leader. On the fourth episode of Tech Fluential, Deloitte's Lou DiLorenzo talks with Tim Buckley, former CEO and chairman at Vanguard, and John Marcante, former CIO at Vanguard and Deloitte's CIO in residence.

Together, they define what tech leadership can look like and how that can impact the C-suite and the board. Where technology and influence converge, new opportunities can emerge. That's Tech Fluential, a podcast from Deloitte and custom content from WSJ.