WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Stocks have moved notably higher during trading on Wednesday, adding to the modest gains posted in the previous session. With the upward move, the major averages are further offsetting the steep losses posted last week.
Currently, the major averages are just off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq is up 295.92 points or 1.3 percent at 22,874.30, the S&P 500 is up 58.76 points or 0.9 percent at 6,901.98 and the Dow is up 290.95 points or 0.6 percent at 49,824.14.
The strength on Wall Street comes amid a sharp increase by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI chipmaker surging by 2.6 percent.
Nvidia is advancing after the company announced a multi-year, multi-generational strategic partnership with Facebook parent Meta (META) spanning on-premises, cloud and AI infrastructure.
The company said the partnership will enable the large-scale deployment of Nvidia CPUs and millions of Nvidia Blackwell and Rubin GPUs.
Shares of Micron (MU) have also spiked by 5.9 percent on news David Tepper's Appaloosa Management has increased its holdings in the chipmaker by 200 percent.
Amazon (AMZN) has also jumped by 2.7 percent following news Bill Ackman's Pershing Square increased its stake in the online retail giant by 65 percent during the fourth quarter.
Positive sentiment may also have been generated in reaction to some upbeat U.S. economic data, including a report from the Federal Reserve showing industrial production increased by more than expected in the month of January.
Later in the day, the Fed is scheduled to release the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting, which may shed light on the outlook for interest rates.
Sector News
Gold stocks are moving sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, resulting in a 3.5 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.
Considerable strength is also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
A spike by the price of crude oil is also contributing to significant strength among oil service stocks, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 2.3 percent.
Brokerage, semiconductor and software stocks are also seeing notable strength, while interest rate-sensitive utilities and commercial real estate stocks have moved to the downside.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher on Wednesday, with several markets still closed for holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.0 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed by 0.5 percent.
The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 1.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.8 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved lower after ending the previous session nearly unchanged. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 2.7 basis points at 4.079 percent.
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