S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs ahead of Powell speech

Investing.com -- US stocks rose Wednesday as investors looked ahead to an upcoming address by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for more cues on interest rates.

At 12:59 ET (17:59 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 181 points, or 0.40%, the S&P 500 index gained 0.4%, and the NASDAQ Composite rose 1%.  Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had hit intraday record highs. Powell address awaited for more rate cues 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak later Wednesday, potentially offering up more cues on the central bank’s plans for interest rates. 

His address comes just weeks before the Fed’s final meeting for 2024, where the central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

But the long term outlook for rates has turned uncertain, especially amid recent signs of inflation remaining above target. The prospect of protectionist trade policies under President-elect Donald Trump, which could entail more import tariffs, also sparked concerns over inflation in the long term.

Trump recently threatened higher tariffs against a slew of countries, including the BRICs bloc, Canada, and Mexico. 

Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent note they expect tariffs to delay inflation from falling to the Fed’s 2% target.

Beyond Powell’s address, focus this week is also on nonfarm payrolls data for November, due on Friday.

Data released earlier Wednesday showed US private payrolls growth slowed in November, raising hopes of another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this month.

Private payrolls rose by 146,000 jobs last month, after advancing by a downwardly revised 184,000 in October, the ADP National Employment Report showed.

Economists had forecast private employment increasing by 166,000 positions after a previously reported gain of 233,000 in October. Salesforce, Marvell soars after Q3 results 

There are more quarterly earnings to digest Wednesday.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM ) stock soared almost 10% after the cloud-based software company beat third-quarter revenue expectations and raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast, helped by robust spending on its enterprise cloud portfolio.

"Salesforce saw strong underlying growth metrics but importantly massive demand out of the gates for Agentforce as the AI Party now comes to CRM and the Software (ETR:SOWGn ) World," Wedbush said in a Wednesday note.

Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR ) stock rose 2% after the discount retailer reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations, driven by strong same-store sales growth across its major brands.

Marvell Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL ) also racked up gains after reporting Q3 results and guidance that topped Wall Street estimates. 

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA ) stock soared nearly 5% after the digital identity verification firm reported a third-quarter profit versus a year-ago loss, with 15% of its bookings coming from new products.

Foot Locker (NYSE:FL ) stock slumped 8% after the footwear retailer cut its annual earnings and sales forecasts as its fiscal third quarter disappointed on softer consumer spending trends. Bitcoin gives up some gains despite Trump's pro-crypto SEC pick 

Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD ) was trading below the flatline after giving up some gains despite President-elect Donald Trump announcing that he  nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to head the agency. 

Atkins, who is seen a pro-crypto pick, is set to succeed Gary Gensler. Gensler was a source of frustration in the crypto community as many believed he was stifling innovation in the industry.  

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)

Source: Investing.com