US stock markets closed higher on Monday, in the first session of a short week due to the Christmas holidays, driven in part by technology stocks, but with gains in almost all of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500.
The rally in tech stocks began late last week, fueled by excellent forecasts from Micron Technology and a benign inflation report, leaving the S&P and Dow within 1% of their Dec. 11 all-time closing high.
At 14:36 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 180.3 points, or 0.37%, to 48,315.1 units; the S&P 500 index gained 28.87 points, or 0.42%, to 6,863.4 units; and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 96.7 points, or 0.41%, to 23,404.3 units.
Nvidia shares rose, providing the biggest boost to the benchmark S&P 500 index.
Reuters reported that the company has told its Chinese customers that it plans to start shipping its second-most powerful artificial intelligence chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February.
Find out: Wall Street ends the week on the rise and with renewed optimism in AI
Micron closed higher, like other chipmakers.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 43.45 points, or 0.64%, to 6,877.95 points, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 121.21 points, or 0.52%, to 23,428.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 222.65 points, or 0.46%, to 48,357.54 units.
Optimism over artificial intelligence, signs of resilience in the U.S. economy and expectations of monetary policy easing have outweighed concerns about U.S. tariffs, helping to put all three major U.S. indices on track for their third consecutive year of gains. The S&P 500 is up 17% for the year.
Trading volumes were thin and are likely to decline further as the holidays approach. US stock markets will close on Wednesday at 18:00 GMT and will not open on Thursday for Christmas.
With information from Reuters.
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