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* Tesla up after stock split announcement (Updates to close)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
Aug 12 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 jumped on Wednesday, but ended just short of its February record high, in a broad run led by tech stocks.
The index traded above its record high of 3,386.15 on February 19, ahead of the start of the coronavirus crisis in the United States, which caused one of the most dramatic Wall Street crashes in history. .
Heavyweights Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc were among the top releases for the S&P 500.
The Nasdaq and Dow also went sharp. The Nasdaq was the first of three major indices to return to a very high in June. The Dow remains below its peak in February.
With a better-than-finished season in the second quarter largely over, investors are preparing for the risk of a closely contested U.S. presidential election in the fall.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday elected Senator Kamala Harris as his choice of vice president.
Investors are also waiting for news about stimulus talks. A split in bilingual talks over the next federal aid effort to help tens of millions of Americans suffering from the corandavirus pandemic has entered into a fifth day, with neither side ready to resume negotiations.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.03% to end at 27,971.9 points, while the S&P 500 gained 1.38% to hit 3,379.81.
The Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.1% to 11,009.76.
Tesla Inc shares jumped, making it one of the biggest boosts for the Nasdaq, as it announced a five-for-one stock split in an attempt to make its shares more accessible to employees and investors. (Additional report by Medha Singh and Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Edited by Arun Koyyur, Uttaresh.V and Tom Brown)
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