US: Stocks resume climb, oil-linked shares pressured

WALL Street stock indices rose on Wednesday in a quiet pre-holiday session as Treasury yields retreated further, but petroleum-linked shares fell as major oil exporters pushed back a meeting.

Stocks were buoyed by strong results from artificial intelligence player Nvidia.

Markets were also encouraged by news of a four-day truce in the Gaza war, during which Hamas will free at least 50 hostages following the deadly Oct 7 attack on Israel.

But most oil-linked stocks such as ExxonMobil and Halliburton were lower after a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies was pushed back from Sunday to Nov 30, sending crude lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 per cent to 35,273.03.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent at 4,556.62, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index won 0.5 per cent to 14,265.86.

Stocks have risen with few pauses since late October amid expectations that the Federal Reserve will not hike interest rates further.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell further on Wednesday.

Among individual companies, Nvidia dropped 2.5 per cent despite reporting a profit of US$9.2 billion. Its revenues soared to US$18.1 billion, compared with US$5.9 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

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Analysts noted that Nvidia had risen significantly in the weeks leading in to the earnings report.

Deere & Co fell 3.1 per cent despite reporting higher earnings as it forecast lower sales in 2024 across most of its agricultural businesses.

Autodesk dropped 6.9 per cent as it forecast earnings that lagged analyst estimates even as profits rose in the most recent quarter.

Markets will be closed for Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday and will cease trading early on Friday. AFP