Wall Street rises as chip makers maintain gains in tech stocks

Investors eyeing results Microsoft Corp, Tesla Inc, IBM and Intel this week to see how their businesses are coping with the threat of an economic downturn from the Federal Reserve’s aggressive policy tightening.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were up in early trade, with a 1.3% rise in tech stocks their biggest gains.

Qualcomm Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc climbed 4.5% and 7%, respectively, after Barclays upgraded their stocks from “equal-weight” to “overweight”.

Western Digital Corp jumped 6% on a report that the memory chipmaker could merge with Japan’s Kioxia Holdings.

those benefits helped Philadelphia The SE Semiconductor index gained 2.9% and hit a one-month high.

“All of those names and sectors (chipmakers) beat the market in general by a lot more than they did in general. So there’s a lot of value in those names now,” said Jimmy Lee, chief executive officer of Wealth Consulting Group.

“It was a tough year for technology investors. So you’re seeing investors starting to go back into some of those names. But instead across the board, they’ll be buying the names that have a chance to do well this year.” Even in a volatile economic climate.”

According to data from IBES Refinitiv, analysts now expect S&P 500 companies to decline 2.9% in the fourth quarter, compared with a 1.6% decline at the beginning of the year.

Investors also await January manufacturing and fourth-quarter GDP data to gauge the impact of the Fed’s rate hike on the economy.

Although recent data have indicated a cooling of inflation, a tight labor market could keep the central bank on a path to tighten its aggressive policy unless rates rise above 5%, a level that most policymakers are not comfortable with. supported by

At 10:04 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 76.08 points, or 0.23%, at 33,451.57, the S&P 500 was up 23.24 points, or 0.59%, at 3,995.85 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 117.16 points, or 1.05%. at 11,257.59.

Cloud-based software firm Salesforce Inc rose 2.0% to share gains among Dow components after activist investor Elliott Management Corp made a multibillion-dollar investment in the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

Baker Hughes Co. slipped 1.1% on fourth-quarter profit estimates hit by component shortages and supply chain disruptions.

Advancing issues outnumbered the 2.05-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and the 1.60-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded two new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and six new lows.