The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rallied to record high closes on Wednesday, fueled by gains in Nvidia and other Wall Street heavyweights ahead of inflation data and quarterly earnings reports due this week. The S&P/TSX Composite Index also posted a solid advance.
It was the Nasdaq’s seventh straight record-high close and the S&P 500′s sixth straight. The S&P 500 crossed 5,600 for the first time after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stoked expectations for an interest-rate cut in September.
Powell said in his second day of Congressional testimony that he was not ready to conclude that inflation was moving sustainably down to 2%, although he expressed “some confidence of that.”
Expectations of a 25-basis-point rate cut by September ticked up to 74% from around 70% on Tuesday and 45% a month ago, according to CME’s FedWatch.
The Philadelphia semiconductor index surged 2.4% to a record high after contract manufacturer Taiwan…
