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A jolt of optimism energized Wall Street Monday - sending stocks higher for a fourth straight session.

The Dow jumped 250 points. The S&P 500 gained 57 points and is now less than two percent away from the lifetime high reached September 2nd. The Nasdaq was the star of the show - roaring nearly 300 points.

Investor sentiment was buoyant ahead of the start of earnings season, lingering vaccine hopes, and optimism Washington will ultimately get its act together on more stimulus measures for the economy.

AllianceBernstein senior portfolio manager for responsible investing Valerie Grant.

"Behind the momentum today, I say, is probably a glimmer of hope around fiscal stimulus. Obviously, there's a debate between the House, the Senate and the White House, and that goes back and forth and back again. And so tomorrow, if there's another headline about perhaps a meeting that didn't end as expected, we could be back down again. So I think that right now people are really looking to fiscal stimulus because the reality is there are still a lot of people who are unemployed."

Tech drove the corporate news cycle. Apple is expected to unveil its first faster-speed 5G iphone on Tuesday after lagging rivals like Samsung. Apple-watchers also expect four new iPhone models: two high-end, a middle priced phone, and a low-tier device with fewer bells and whistles. Investors jumped in ahead of Tuesday's digital event -pushing the stock up 6 percent.

Amazon rallied ahead of its Prime Day. The two days of digital discounts kicks off the holiday shopping season for the online retailer, after it postponed the annual event earlier this year due to the health crisis. Shares of Amazon were up nearly 5 percent. By the way, Walmart and Target decided to take on Amazon with their own online sales events. Both of those stocks finished higher as well.

Twitter was another big tech winner after an analyst upgrade to "buy." The social media company touched a multi-year high.