Optimism over vaccine rollouts and hopes for a strong economic recovery and even Mawr fiscal support drove investors to buy stocks in economically sensitive sectors like materials and cyclicals.

The Dow rose a quarter percent, the S and P and NASDAQ added more than 1/10 percent.

Fiduciary Trust Chief investment officer Hans Olsen spelled out what spurred investors on Wednesday one the reality that the checks were hitting the mail from the stimulus and number two vaccines getting rolled out.

And without a doubt, there's probably some portfolio dressing going on tax loss selling and portfolio managers making sure that they have the right names in their portfolios for year end statements.

Among the top gainers on the S and P 500 Wednesday, MasterCard Stevens hiked its price target on the payments network processor, implying the shares could rise another 15%.

Travel related stocks like airlines and cruise operators Carnival and Norwegian rose, but AMC shares fell for an eighth straight day.