NEW YORK, Aug. 26 (Xinhua/Big News Nerwork) — U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, boosted by a strong rally in tech-related shares.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.48 points, or 0.3 percent, to 28,331.92.
The S&P 500 increased 35.11 points, or 1.02 percent, to 3,478.73.
The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 198.59 points, or 1.73 percent, to 11,665.06.
Shares of major U.S. tech giants, or the so-called FAANG group of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet, all closed noticeably higher.
Salesforce shares surged 26 percent after the U.S. software company reported better-than-anticipated second-quarter earnings and issued an upbeat outlook for the year.
Six of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors advanced, with communication services and technology up 3.71 percent and 2.05 percent, respectively, leading the gainers. Energy dipped 2.23 percent, the worst-performing group.
Meanwhile, U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly higher, with eight of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on an upbeat note.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to deliver a speech on Thursday at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on the U.S. central bank’s monetary policy framework review.
Investors will focus on the Fed’s comments on the economy, inflation and look for clues on further stimulus, experts noted.
“While we expect the Fed to shy away from more radical easing measures, such as explicit controls on government bond yields, we believe Powell will likely outline other dovish measures,” UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Officer Mark Haefele said in a note on Wednesday.
“These could include a move toward average inflation targeting, giving the central bank more leeway to allow inflation to overshoot the 2 percent target while keeping rates pegged close to zero,” Haefele added.
On the data front, U.S. durable goods orders jumped by 11.2 percent in July after an increase of 7.7 percent in the prior month, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday. Economists had expected durable goods orders to rise by 4.3 percent.
On foreign exchange markets the U.S. dollar sank across the board. The euro however lagged the other majors, edging up to just 1.1830. The British pound was robust, rising to 1.3207. The Japanese yen firmed to 105.97. The Swiss franc jumped to 0.9080.
The Canadian dollar rose to 1.3148. The Australian dollar was sharply highr at 0.7231, as was the New Zealand dollar at 0.6617.
Overseas, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.14 percent. The German Dax was up 0.98 percent, while the Paris-based CAC 40 climbed 0.98%.
On Asian markets, China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 43.84 points or 1.30% to 3,329.74.
In Japan the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 5.91 points, or 0.03% to 23,290.86.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, finished basically flat, sliding 0.75 of a point, or 0.05% to 1,624.48.
The Australian All Ordinaries was down 37.50 points or 0.59% at 6,294.50.