US STOCKS-S&P 500 and Nasdaq close at highest since April 2022

VMware

12/06/2023 21:30

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      Fed expected to hold rates this week 
    

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      Consumer prices data for May due on Tuesday
    

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      Nasdaq Inc slides on Adenza buyout deal 
    

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      Indexes close: S&P 500 +0.93%, Nasdaq +1.53%, Dow +0.56%
    

  
 (Updated with market close at 1600 ET/2000 GMT)
    By Noel Randewich and Shristi  Achar A
       June 12 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rallied
on Monday to their highest closing levels since April 2022,
while Oracle hit a record high ahead of quarterly results as
investors awaited inflation data and the Federal Reserve's
interest rate decision this week. 
    Lifted by gains in market heavyweights Amazon  AMZN.O ,
Apple  AAPL.O  and Tesla  TSLA.O , the S&P 500 has now recovered
21% from its October 2022 lows. Some investors say Wall Street
is the midst of a bull market.
    "The further out the October lows get in the rear view
mirror, the more confident investors become. Have investors
become more complacent? They probably have, and that's actually
a good sign," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of
Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.,
        Tesla rose 2.2% and has now climbed for 12 straight
trading sessions, a record for the electric car maker.
  
        Apple and Microsoft each rose about 1.5%, with
year-to-date gains in the two technology companies' shares
reaching 41% and 38%, respectively.
  
        The S&P 500 climbed 0.93% to end the session at 4,338.93
points.
  
        The Nasdaq gained 1.53% to 13,461.92 points, while Dow
Jones Industrial Average rose 0.56% to 34,066.33 points.
  
    
        Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, eight rose, led by
information technology  .SPLRCT , up 2.07%, followed by a 1.74%
gain in consumer discretionary  .SPLRCD .
  
    The U.S. Labor Department's consumer price index reading on
Tuesday is expected to show inflation cooled slightly in May,
with core prices likely remaining sticky. Tuesday is also first
day of the Fed's two-day meeting.     
    Traders see a 76% chance of the central bank holding rates
at the 5%-5.25% range on Wednesday, while pricing in a 71%
chance of a rate hike in July, according to the CME Fedwatch
tool. 
    "There's a chance that the Fed will stay data dependent. So
we don't necessarily think that a rate hike is off the table in
the future, but for the near term we just see them staying
steady," said Dylan Kremer, co-chief investment officer of
Certuity.  
    Gains in megacap stocks, better-than-expected quarterly
earnings and hopes that the Fed might be nearing the end of its
monetary tightening cycle have lifted indexes in recent weeks. 
    The rally has recently widened to include more economically
sensitive sectors such as energy and industrials, as well as
small-cap stocks, as data continues to show a resilient U.S.
economy despite higher interest rates.
    Goldman Sachs on Friday raised its year-end price target for
the benchmark S&P 500  .SPX  to 4,500 from 4,000, citing the
broadening of the market rally.
    The CBOE volatility index  .VIX  edged up to about 14.8, its
highest since last Tuesday.
    After the bell, Oracle  ORCL.N  climbed 3.5% following its
quarterly report. In Monday's trading session it rose as much as
7% to an all-time high after J.P. Morgan hiked its price target.
    Nasdaq Inc  NDAQ.O  slumped almost 12% after the exchange
operator said it would buy software firm Adenza for $10.5
billion, which analysts called an expensive bet.
    Biogen  BIIB.O  rose 1.5% after a U.S. FDA panel of advisers
unanimously backed its Alzheimer's drug, Leqembi, raising
expectations that a traditional approval for the treatment might
not come with major new safety warnings.
    Broadcom Inc  AVGO.O  jumped 6.3% after Reuters reported 
the chipmaker was set to gain conditional EU antitrust approval
for its $61 billion proposed acquisition of cloud computing firm
VMware  VMW.N . That helped lift the Philadelphia semiconductor
index  .SOX  3.3%, bringing its recovery in 2023 to over 44%.
        Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P
500  .AD.SPX  by a two-to-one ratio.
  
        The S&P 500 posted 24 new highs and three new lows; the
Nasdaq recorded 107 new highs and 68 new lows.
  
        Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 10.2
billion shares traded, compared to an average of 10.6 billion
shares over the previous 20 sessions.
  

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Trading in the S&P 500    https://tmsnrt.rs/3WZPOtB
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 (Reporting by Shristi Achar A and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru
and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.
Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Sriraj Kalluvila and David Gregorio)
 ((noel.randewich@tr.com; Twitter: @randewich))