Wall Street closes higher as investors eye economic data, Fed comments

Reuters

Wall Street closes higher as investors eye economic data, Fed comments

8:00 chiều giờ GMT, 17 Tháng 6 2024

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Goldman Sachs raises S&P 500 year-end target to 5,600 points

Evercore ISI hikes year-end S&P 500 target to 6,000 points

Autodesk up after report Starboard Value takes ~$500 mln stake

Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq higher

As of 4:00 p.m. eastern

By Echo Wang

June 17 (Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes closed higheron Monday as investors awaited neweconomic data and commentsfrom Federal Reserve officials for more clarity on monetary policy.

Megacaps Apple AAPL.O and Microsoft MSFT.O rose in a rebound from early losses. Artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia NVDA.O retreated from a record high.

Other rallyingchip stocks helped to send the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX briefly to an all-time high. Broadcom AVGO.O and U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSM.N were both up while Micron Technology MU.O roseafter price-target raises by brokerages.

Technology .SPLRCT and consumer discretionary.SPLRCD were thebiggest gainers among the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, while real estate.SPLRCR and utilities.SPLRCU led declines.

"There is hope that lower interest rates might come into play looking forward, reducing housing costs and helping consumers out," said J. Bryant Evans, investment advisor and portfolio manager at Cozad Asset Management in Champaign, Illinois.

Goldman Sachs lifted its2024 year-end target for the S&P 500 Index .SPX to 5,600 from 5,200, while Evercore ISI raised its forecast forthe benchmark index to 6,000 from 4,750.

Both brokerages cited technologystrength and enthusiasm for AIas reasons for their upgrades.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC and S&P 500 hit multiple all-time peaks in the previous week.

The Fed will be able to cut its benchmark interest rate once this year, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harkersaid on Monday, if his economic forecast plays out.

New York Fed President John Williams and Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook will speak later on Monday.

This week'seconomic roster includesMay retail sales data on Tuesday, followed byindustrial production, housing starts and the S&P flash Purchasing Managers' Index.

Markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.

The Fed held interest rates steady on Wednesday and pushed out the start of rate cuts to perhaps as late as December.

However, markets still expect about two 25-basis-point cuts this year, LSEG data showed. The CME FedWatch tool FEDWATCH shows easing is still seen beginning at the September meeting.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 41.80 points, or 0.77%, to end at 5,473.40 points, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 167.44 points, or 0.95%, to 17,856.33. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 190.50 points, or 0.49%, to 38,779.66.

Autodesk ADSK.O jumped aftera report that activist investor Starboard Value had bought a roughly $500 million stake in the software maker.

The Fed’s dot plot https://reut.rs/3Rqet91

Reporting by Echo Wang and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Lisa Mattackal and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Richard Chang

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