Indexes rise with tech shares, Powell comments

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks were solidly higher in afternoon trading on Wednesday as technology shares rose after upbeat results from Salesforce (NYSE:CRM ), while indexes added to gains following comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touched record highs.

Powell said the economy is stronger than it had appeared in September when the central bank began cutting interest rates. That could possibly allow policymakers to be more cautious in cutting rates further, he said.

Powell's comments overall along with the Beige Book report added to the upbeat tone in the market, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

The central bank's Beige Book released Wednesday afternoon showed economic activity rose slightly in most Fed districts.

Powell "was very upbeat about economy, and he said we're making progress on inflation... that's good news for stocks in general," Cardillo said.

Salesforce jumped 8.9% to an all-time high after the enterprise cloud company beat Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast.

Other cloud companies also jumped, and the S&P 500 technology index hit a record high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 271.98 points, or 0.61%, to 44,977.51, the S&P 500 gained 30.92 points, or 0.51%, to 6,080.80 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 226.32 points, or 1.16%, to 19,707.23.

Also gaining, Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL ) Technology advanced 24% to a record high after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analyst estimates, while the broader Semiconductor index rose 1.6%.

Investors await monthly U.S. jobs data due on Friday.

Investors expect a third consecutive interest-rate cut at the central bank's Dec. 17-18 meeting.

Earlier, U.S. private payrolls data showed a modest increase in November.

Separately, a survey from the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. services sector activity slowed in November after big gains in recent months. The final reading of the S&P services survey was revised lower to 56.1.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 311 new highs and 64 new lows on the NYSE.



On the Nasdaq, 2,223 stocks rose and 2,027 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.1-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 134 new highs and 90 new lows.

Source: Investing.com