Stock market today: Tech leads further gains in early trading on Wall Street | National News

NEW YORK (`) – Shares rose in Wall Street morning trade on Friday, led by further gains in technology stocks as another chipmaker reported strong artificial intelligence-related demand.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 240 points, or 0.7%, to 33,003 as of 10:08 a.m. Eastern Time, and the Nasdaq was up 1%.

Technology stocks provided much of the brunt for the benchmark S&P 500. Marvell Technology rose 25% after the chipmaker said it expects AI sales to at least double in fiscal 2024 from a year earlier. This follows Thursday’s report from fellow chipmaker Nvidia, which gave a big forecast for upcoming AI-related sales.

Wall Street’s focus remains on Washington and the ongoing negotiations for an agreement to raise the US government’s debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic default.

Officials said President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would agree on a two-year budget deal that could open the door to raising the country’s debt ceiling. The Democratic President and Republican Speaker hope to reach a budget compromise this weekend.

The risk that the US could default on its debt comes amid ongoing fears of an impending recession as inflation grips businesses and consumers. A key indicator of inflation, closely monitored by the Federal Reserve, came in higher than economists had expected in April. The report also showed that consumer spending remains strong.

Persistent inflationary pressures are making the Fed’s fight against high prices more difficult. The central bank has been aggressively raising interest rates since 2022, but recently signaled it was likely to forego a rate hike at its mid-June meeting. The government’s latest inflation report raises concerns about the Fed’s next move.

According to CME’s Fedwatch tool, Wall Street is now slightly biased toward the possibility of another quarter-point rate hike in June.

Bond yields had fallen just ahead of the latest inflation data but rose after the report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which helps set interest rates on mortgages and other major loans, rose to 3.82% from 3.78% just before the report was published.

The performance of the two-year Treasury yield, which tends to reflect expectations of Fed action, has been more extreme. It rose to 4.58% from 4.49% before the report.

The markets in Europe and Asia gained ground.

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Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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