All three major U.S. stock indexes closed Wednesday as tech stocks rallied after upbeat results from Salesforce and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell lifted prices late. The highest value was recorded.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.7%, to $45,014.04. The S&P 500 Index rose 3.06% to end at 6,086.49 points, and the Nasdaq Index rose 254 points, or 1.29%, to 19,735.12.
Chairman Powell said at a New York Times event that the economy is stronger than seen in September, when the central bank began cutting interest rates, and that policymakers may be more cautious about cutting rates further.
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York, said Powell's comments and the Beige Book report added to the overall upbeat mood in the market.
U.S. economic activity has expanded slightly in most regions since early October, the Federal Reserve said in a report compiled from surveys and interviews from around the country known as the “Beige Book.”
“Chairman Powell was very optimistic about the economy and said we're making progress on inflation…That's good news for stocks in general,” Cardillo said.
Investors are expecting a third consecutive interest rate cut at the central bank's meeting on December 17-18.
Salesforce soared to an intraday high after the enterprise cloud company beat street expectations for third-quarter revenue and raised the lower end of its full-year revenue forecast.
Other cloud companies also made strides, with the S&P 500 technology index hitting an all-time high.
In tech, Marvell Technology Co. also rose after the chipmaker said it expected fourth-quarter sales to beat analysts' expectations. Shares of other semiconductor manufacturers also rose.
Investors are awaiting the release of monthly U.S. jobs data on Friday and jobless claims numbers on Thursday.
Earlier, US private payroll data for November showed a modest increase.
Separately, U.S. service sector activity slowed in November after strong growth in recent months, according to a study by the Institute for Supply Management. The final S&P Services survey was revised downward to 56.1.
“Recent economic data all but confirms that the Fed will cut interest rates in December,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.
Friday's jobs report will be “kind of the granddaddy of this week's jobs numbers,” he said.
