Wall Street today: S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record high for fifth straight session

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose to fresh highs at the open on Wednesday for the fifth straight session.

The rally was supported by chip and big technology stocks.

At 9:53 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 17.83 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 39,309.80, the S&P 500 was up 14.12 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 5,591.10, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 87.84 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 18,517.13.

At the opening bell, the S&P 500 edged higher by 14.28 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 5,591.26, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 82.80 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 18,512.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 19.52 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 39,272.45.

Nvidia shares surged 1.3 per cent, while Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and ON Semiconductor rose about 1 per cent.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s US-listed shares climbed 2.5 per cent after the chipmaker posted a second quarter revenue.

Shares of Alphabet and Microsoft rose 1 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively. Apple climbed 1 per cent to touch a record high.

Smart Global Holdings, a technology company with computing, memory and LED businesses, soared 18 per cent after it reported stronger quarterly profit and revenue.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.28 per cent from 4.30 per cent late on Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield edged down to 4.61 per cent from 4.62 per cent.

Crude oil

Oil prices gained on Wednesday after data showedUS crude and gasoline inventories fell last week.

Brent futures rose 66 cents, or 0.78 per cent, at $85.32 a barrel at 11:18 am EDT (1519 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 86 cents, or 1.06 per cent, to $82.27 a barrel.

Bullion

Gold prices rose on Wednesday after comments from Jerome Powell raised hopes that the Federal Reserve is on track to lower interest rates soon.

Spot gold rose 0.7 per cent to $2,380.44 per ounce by 1424 GMT. US gold futures climbed 0.8 per cent to $2,387.10.