LIVE MARKETS-Nasdaq rises modestly with Nvidia doing most of the work

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NASDAQ RISES MODESTLY WITH NVIDIA DOING MOST OF THE WORK

While the S&P 500 .SPX jogged in place to end basically flat after a two-day rally, the Dow Jones Industrial average .DJI had a slightly more decisive 0.25% drop.

But the Nasdaq composite .IXIC advanced for the third straight day. with its biggest boost by far coming from one stock, the AI-chip heavyweight Nvidia Corp NVDA.O.

Nvidia hit an all-time intraday high and then followed through with a record closing level, making it the world's most valuable company by market capitalization after Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah lifted his price target to $250 from $175, saying NVDA would benefit from a "Golden Wave" for AI.

Nvidia closed up 4.3% at $154.31, after surpassing its previous intraday record hit in January. Its rally pushed the S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT to a record high for the second straight day, making it the biggest gainer among the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors.

The next-biggest Nasdaq boost was Alphabet GOOGL.O, which closed up 2.3% and led gains in the S&P 500 communications services index .SPLRCL, which ended up 0.5% as the second strongest S&P sector after technology.

It likely helped that while Britain's competition regulator came up with a plan to control Google's huge search business, a political shift in big tech's favor gave it more bark than bite.

Elsewhere though, not everything was bullish with 8 sectors ending the day in the red and four falling more than 1%.

Real Estate .SPLRCR was the biggest laggard, ending down 2.46%, with only one stock in the index advancing.

The S&P's biggest single drag on the day was Tesla TSLA.O, which lost 3.8%, in its second straight decline as enthusiasm quickly reversed amid tests of its robotaxis in Texas.

TSLA shares had rallied 8% on Monday with the start of the tests. But the robotaxis led to multiple traffic problems and driving issues, according to videos from company-selected riders showed over the first few days of testing.

Here is the closing snapshot:

(Sinéad Carew)

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