Wall Street has a new number to brag about - almost.

The S&P 500 SPX on Wednesday reached 7,000 for the first time in history, extending a rally that has pushed U.S. large-cap stocks into a territory few investors imagined decades ago, but then pulled back.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3% to trade at a session peak of 7,002.28 Wednesday, a new intraday record, but then failed to finish above the 7,000 threshold for the first time ever.

Wednesday would have marked 302 trading days - or about 14 months - since the S&P 500's last 1,000-point milestone, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The large-cap benchmark index finished above 6,000 for the first time on Nov. 11, 2024. Investors will be waiting for a close above 7,000 to confirm the new milestone.

Recent 1,000-point milestones have been arriving more frequently lately. The index took just 190 days to get from 5,000 to 6,000, and 719 days to go from 4,000 to 5,000. By comparison, it took 4,168 trading days for the index to go from 1,000 to 2,000 (see table below).

SOURCE: DOW JONES MARKET DATA

"It's a chaotic start to the year, but what we've seen is a major rotation underway. We're seeing stocks that don't tend to lead during the heart of bull markets - meaning energy XX:SP500.10, materials XX:SP500.15 and consumer staples XX:SP500.30 stocks - leading the rally," said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets.

Yet "that's the wrong leadership," Woods said, adding that the stock market still needs the so-called Magnificent Seven group of tech companies to drive an "explosive rally" - a dynamic that has played out so far this week as the S&P 500 pushes toward 7,000 ahead of megacap tech earnings later on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 kicked off the new year hovering just below the 7,000 level, but the final push to its next big round-number milestone got bumpy after President Donald Trump blasted into 2026 with dramatic moves in foreign policy, including a military operation in Venezuela that captured the country's then leader, Nicholás Maduro, and commandeered some of its oil revenue.

Last week Trump also briefly renewed tariff threats against European allies, stemming from their opposition to his talk of acquiring Greenland. That temporarily sparked wild swings in the stock market, which quickly recovered.

Other major stock indexes also closed near record territory, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA at 49,015.60, or 1.2% below its prior record. The Nasdaq composite COMP ended at 23,857.45, 0.4% from its record level. Gold (GC00), silver (SI00) and copper (HG00) have been surging to new highs.

More notably, the small-cap Russell 2000 index RUT has led the way up in 2026, rising almost 7% so far this month, while the large-cap S&P 500 has gained less than 2% in the same period, according to FactSet data. The outperformance of small caps reflects hopes for an accelerating U.S. economy, as smaller, domestically focused companies tend to benefit from rising investor appetite for higher growth and riskier stocks when the economy is on firm ground.