Wall Street today: US stocks edge higher ahead of key economic events, chip shares rally

US stock indices on Monday edged higher ahead of consumer inflation data and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to the Congress this week.

Powell’s testimony to the Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday, could provide cues on monetary policy path.

A report on Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June will be released on Thursday.

At 9:48 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 276.53 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 39,652.40, the S&P 500 was up 13.11 points, or 0.24 per cent, at 5,580.30, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 21.41 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 18,374.17.

In the early trading, the S&P 500 was up 0.2 per cent, the Nasdaq edged up 0.1 per cent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 per cent.

Shares of chip companies Nvidia, Intel, Marvell Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm surged between 1per cent and 5 per cent.

Bank stocks Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo rose nearly 1 per centeach ahead of their second quarter earnings on Friday.

Shares of Alphabet, Amazon.com and Meta Platforms fell between 0.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent. Tesla lost 2.4 per cent.

Boeing stock gained 2.1 per centafter agreeing to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 4.28 per cent as on late Friday.

Crude oil

Oil prices declined on Monday as supply disruption worries eased on hopes of a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Brent crude futures fell 42 cents, or 0.5 per cent, at $86.12 a barrel, as at 1230 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $82.64 a barrel, down 52 cents, or 0.63 per cent.

Bullion

Gold slipped on Monday on profit booking.

Spot gold fell 0.6 per centto $2,376.40 per ounce as of 1223 GMT. US gold futures eased 0.5 per cent to $2,384.80.

Spot silver fell 0.4 per cent to $31.09.