WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Stocks have moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, largely offsetting the pullback seen in the previous session. The major averages have all moved to the upside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way.
In recent trading, the major averages have reached new highs for the session. The Nasdaq is up 178.73 points or 0.8 percent at 22,967.10, the S&P 500 is up 35.18 points or 0.5 percent at 6,749.77 and the Dow is up 133.10 points or 0.3 percent at 46,736.08.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflects a notable advance by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling and market leading jumping by 1.8 percent.
Nvidia is moving high after CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC's 'Squawk Box' artificial intelligence computing demand has increased 'substantially' in the last six months.
Meanwhile, traders continue to shrug off the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which has entered its eighth day today.
Lawmakers in Washington continue to struggle to pass a temporary funding bill due in part to Democrats' demands that the legislation include an extension of enhanced Obamacare tax credits.
Later in the day, trading may be impacted by reaction to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.
The minutes of the Fed's September meeting, when the central bank decided to lower interest rates by a quarter point, may shed additional light on the outlook for rates.
Sector News
Computer hardware stocks are seeing substantial strength on the day, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index spiking by 3.3 percent.
A continued surge by the price of gold is also contributing to significant strength among gold stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.
Networking and semiconductor stocks have also shown notable moves to the upside, contributing to the advance by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index both fell by 0.5 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.1 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.7 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have pulled back near the unchanged line after seeing initial strength. Currently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by less than a basis point at 4.119 percent.
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