NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Wednesday, extending a strong start to the quarter as a rally among chipmaker shares provided a boost to the broader market on growing hopes of a trade deal between Washington and Beijing.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said talks between the United States and China have progressed and both sides hope to get closer to a deal this week.
Shares of chipmakers, which rely heavily on China for revenue, especially benefited. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index jumped as much as 3% to a record high. The index ended 2.3% higher.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc shares gained 8.5%, the most on the S&P 500, and Intel Corp shares rose 2.0% after Nomura Instinet started coverage of both the stocks with “buy” ratings.
Positive sentiment on trade outweighed weak economic data. The Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. services sector PMI for March was below estimates and at its lowest since August 2017.
Earlier, the ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. private employers added 129,000 jobs in March, below economists’ estimates.
“It’s the push-and-pull hope of a trade deal versus the stark reality of disappointing economic news,” said Oliver Pursche, chief market strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39 points, or 0.15%, to 26,218.13, the S&P 500 gained 6.16 points, or 0.21%, to 2,873.4 and the Nasdaq Composite added 46.86 points, or 0.6%, to 7,895.55.
The S&P 500 came off its highs in afternoon trading after a report from cybersecurity firm UpGuard that millions of Facebook Inc’s user records were
