After weeks of flirting with the all-time high, and watching the Dow break its all-time high eight days in a row, the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.02%) finally set its own record. Today the index broke its previously set all-time closing high of 1,565, when it managed to gain 6.34 points, or 0.41% today, and close at 1,569. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.11%) and the NASDAQ rose higher, as well, but by slightly lower percentages. The Dow gained 52 points, or 0.36%, while the NASDAQ rose 0.34%.

The record was set on a day when investors were hit with a mixed bag of macro-economic events and data points. The Cypriot banks opened today essentially without a hitch, which was seen as a positive, but jobless claims here at home rose last week by 16,000, to 357,000, for the week ending March 23. Increased unemployment is never a good thing, but that negative data point was rebutted today by a revised GDP number for the fourth quarter of 2012. The government's final reading was 0.4% growth during the last three months of last year, which is much better than the initial reading of a 0.1% contraction, or even the reading from last month, which reported growth of only 0.1% for the final months of 2012.  

As we all know, the indexes are moved by the underlining components. So let's take a look at a few of the Dow's big winners today.

A few Dow winners
After rising 1.75% yesterday, shares of UnitedHealth (UNH 0.23%) continued their climb higher today, gaining another 1.04%. The reason for both yesterday's and today's rise is that many market participants believe the Medicare Advantage reimbursement rates will not be slashed as previously expected. UnitedHealth is one of the largest health-care insurers, and a large portion of its revenue comes from Medicare and other government programs. If future rates remain the same or increase, the company's revenue and profits should benefit. 

The Dow's technology stocks played a large role in today's move higher. Shares of IBM (IBM 1.05%) rose 1.14%, while Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 1.55%) gained 1.1%, and even big softy Microsoft joined the party, as shares inched higher by 0.83%. My Fool colleague John Divine noted earlier today that demand for supercomputers is rising, and that sales of high-end devices rose 30% last year. This news certainly helped IBM today, and likely pushed H-P higher, as well. While most would agree that IBM offers the top-of-the-line products in this space, H-P has been emphasizing the quality of their own mainframes, but at a lower price.