What you need to know on Wall Street today

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What you need to know on Wall Street today

Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. Sign up here to get the best of Business Insider delivered direct to your inbox.

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Stocks hit all-time highs for the first time since January

US stocks on Tuesday rose to record highs for the first time since January 26.

Led by tech and utilities companies, the benchmark S&P 500 index surpassed its previous intra-day record of 2,872.87. It traded up 0.6% to 2,872.93 at 1:10 p.m. ET.

The rally to new highs almost coincided with an even bigger milestone for stocks: After the market closes on Wednesday, this bull market will officially become the longest in history, as measured by its ascent from the low it set during the recession in 2009.

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Stocks rebounded after a correction in February, a 10% drop from its previous high that was only the fourth of this bull market. The plunge took the Dow Jones industrial average down by more than 1,000 points, the most ever, and wiped out investment products that had profited from the low volatility that prevailed in markets for most of last year.

JPMorgan's assault on Silicon Valley's turf continues with launch of cheap stock trading app

JPMorgan is taking the plunge into the market for low-cost stock trading, another sign the investing giant is going after the business of younger, sexier startup firms like Robinhood.

The New York-based firm is launching its new investing app next week, according to a CNBC report. The new app would offer discounted stock trading, a portfolio-building feature, and access to the investment bank's research

Customers who download JPMorgan's banking app can get 100 free trades in the first year.

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Across the brokerage industry, firms have been under pressure to lower cost amid rising competition. Notably, California brokerage Robinhood pioneered free stock trading, forcing establishment firms like Fidelity and TDAmeritrade to slash their pricing. Most recently, Fidelity announced no-fee index funds.

Slack just raised a whopping $427 million to become a $7.1 billion company

Slack, the work chat app that's become a poster child for Silicon Valley startup success, is on something of a hot streak.

First, Slack bought the intellectual property to Atlassian's HipChat, which had been one of its chief rivals. Then, no less than Microsoft recognized Slack as a major rival to the Microsoft Office suite in an official regulatory filing.

Now, Slack can add one more to its win column, as it takes in a whopping $427 million in an investment round led by Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic, with participation from T. Rowe Price, Wellington Management, and others, including its existing roster of investors.

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Another Wall Street bank has dropped coverage of Tesla

Morgan Stanley has dropped research overage of Tesla in what could be another sign of Elon Musk's electric-car company tapping banks for financial services in its bid to go private.

Goldman Sachs previously dropped coverage last week and said it was "acting as a financial advisor in connection with a matter that is fundamental to the reasonable analysis of the rating and price target for the stock."

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