The New York Stock Exchange was flat on Thursday for the final session of what should be a second consecutive quarter of strong gains.

At midday, the Dow Jones was down less than 0.1% at 39,777.4 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1% at 16,381.9 points. The S&P 500 gained 0.1% to 5,251.6 points.

Volumes remain low and movements limited for this last session of the first quarter, as markets will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday.

The S&P 500, which this quarter broke through the 5,000-point barrier for the first time in its history, is currently up just over 10% since January 1.

At current levels, it is only five points away from its all-time record of 5,261.1 points.

Market sentiment has reached a point of euphoria", emphasized Citi strategists this morning, based on their in-house indicator, the Levkovich Index, previously known as the Panic/Euphoria model.

Equity markets had a solid quarter, and while it's true that a lot of the good news is now priced in, we think that a continuation of the upward movement is possible", say the teams at Capital Economics.

The main economic indicator of the day, US GDP growth was revised upwards in Q4, to 3.4% from 3.2% in the second reading.

The Labor Department reported 210,000 new jobless claims last week, down 2,000 on the previous week.

Investors are now awaiting PCE inflation, the Fed's most closely watched measure, which will be released tomorrow when markets are closed for Good Friday.

In terms of sectors, investors are taking profits on communications (-0.5%) and technology (-0.2%) stocks, the big winners of the quarter, to position themselves in energy (+0.7%) and real estate (+0.5%).

On the bond market, yields on US government bonds were virtually unchanged after falling in recent days, due to the increasingly real prospect of a rate cut in June.

Ten-year Treasuries, the main benchmark for government bond markets, were stable at 4.29%.

Crude oil prices rose slightly, with US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) up 1.5% at around $82.6. Over the quarter as a whole, WTI gained over 15%.

Gold prices are trading at a new all-time high, at $2236.7 an ounce, and are heading for a 7% rise over the first quarter as a whole.

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