Stocks Rally, S&P Hits New High

Wall Street saw some new records Tuesday, with the widely-held S&P 500 closing at a new high.

The Dow Industrials gained 75 points, helped in part by a better-than-expected reading on the manufacturing sector last month.

On Capitol Hill there were lots of ‘I'm sorry's' and few answers yesterday as congressional investigators grilled General Motors (NYSE:GM) on its ignition-switch defect.

The lawmakers wanted to know why it took GM so long to fix the part, a fix that would have cost 57 cents but instead cost 13 people their lives.

They didn't get much from GM CEO Mary Barra, who said: "I cannot tell you why it took so long for a safety defect to be announced for this program, but I can tell you we will find out."

GM said it has hired disaster fund management expert Kenneth Feinberg to evaluate how the company will respond to victims' families.

Elsewhere, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is bringing back its popular cake slices after getting rid of the goodies to make room for its new menu.

Customers complained, and the cake slices will return in the coming weeks.