WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the rally seen over the two previous sessions, stocks showed another strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday. With the continued upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 376.93 points or 1.6 percent to 24,016.02 and the S&P 500 advanced 55.57 points or 0.8 percent to 7,022.95, although the narrower bucked the uptrend and dipped 72.27 points or 0.2 percent to 48,463.72.
The extended surge by the Nasdaq partly reflected strength among tech stocks, with Broadcom (AVGO) helping to lead the sector higher.
Shares of Broadcom spiked by 4.2 percent after the chip maker announced a multi-year, multi-generation strategic partnership to support Meta's (META) rapidly scaling artificial intelligence compute infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the modest pullback by the Dow partly reflected a steep decline by shares of Caterpillar (CAT), with the construction equipment maker tumbling by 3.0 percent.
Traders also continued to express optimism about an resolution of the conflict in the Middle East even as they await additional details about another round of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.
In an interview with Fox Business, President Donald Trump expressed confidence the war is 'very close to over' and reiterated his claim that Iran wants to make a deal 'very badly.'
Trump also predicted that the 'stock market is going to boom' when the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran is finally over.
Sector News
Software stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index surging by 4.6 percent.
Considerable strength was also visible among brokerage stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index.
On the other hand, gold stocks moved sharply lower amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 3.1 percent.
A report showing a bigger than expected deterioration in homebuilder confidence also weighed on housing stocks, resulting in a 2.0 percent slump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 0.3 percent.
Meanwhile, most European stocks moved to the downside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, although the German DAX Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries gave back ground after moving higher over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.6 basis points to 4.282 percent.
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