United States benchmark averages advanced on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), with technology shares leading gains as Wall Street kicked off a holiday-shortened trading week on a positive note.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 227.8 points or 0.5% to 48,362.7, the S&P 500 rose 44.0 points or 0.6% to 6,878.5, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 121.2 points or 0.5% to 23,428.8.
The rally extended momentum from late last week, when upbeat forecasts from Micron Technology and a cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation report helped revive investor appetite for growth stocks.
Shares linked to artificial intelligence continued to underpin the market, with Nvidia rising 1.5% after Reuters reported the chipmaker is aiming to begin shipments of its H200 chips to China by mid-February.
Oracle added 3.3%, and AMD lifted 0.7%.
Wall Street is coming off a mixed week for the major indices. A late surge in technology stocks helped the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite notch their third winning week in four, while the Dow Jones, which has outperformed so far this month, snapped a three-week winning streak.
At the company level, Tesla shares rose 1.6% to touch an all-time intraday high after the Delaware Supreme Court restored chief executive Elon Musk’s 2018 pay package.
Warner Bros Discovery gained 3.5% after Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison agreed to provide a personal guarantee of US$40.4 billion in equity financing for Paramount Skydance’s bid to acquire the company.
Paramount shares climbed 4.3%.
Clearwater Analytics Holdings jumped 8.1% after a consortium of private equity firms led by Permira and Warburg Pincus reached an agreement to acquire the investment and accounting software group for about $8.4 billion, including debt.
Trading volumes were light and are expected to thin further as the Christmas holiday approaches. The New York Stock Exchange will close early at 1 pm ET (6 pm GMT) on Wednesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed on Thursday for Christmas Day.
However, investors are also looking ahead to a busy economic calendar, with the preliminary reading of third-quarter gross domestic product, December consumer confidence data and weekly jobless claims due for release.
The figures are expected to provide further insight into the health of the U.S. economy and clues on the future path of monetary policy.
On the bond markets, U.S. Treasury yields edged higher, with the 10-year yield up 0.4% to 4.167% and the 2-year yield rising 0.6% to 3.507%.
