US STOCKS-S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs ahead of Fed meeting; Tesla jumps

By Purvi Agarwal and Ragini Mathur

Sept 15 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit intraday record highs on Monday, setting a positive tone for a week dominated by the Federal Reserve's crucial policy meeting, while Tesla shares climbed following CEO Elon Musk's stock purchase.

The electric vehicle maker TSLA.O jumped 6% to its highest level since late January after regulatory filings revealed Musk had acquired nearly $1 billion worth of Tesla's stock on Friday.

The monetary policy decision from the Fed looms large over sentiment this week with market participants widely expecting a 25-basis-point reduction following recent economic data signaling labor market weakness.

"The discussion will turn to how aggressively the Fed will act, and the market may take its near-term cues from Chairman (Jerome) Powell's press conference," said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.

"Last week's inflation data was mixed, and the Fed may remind everyone that it may be focused on jobs now, but it hasn't forgotten about the other half of its mandate."

Traders are pricing in a total of 68.6 points in monetary policy easing by end-2025, data compiled by LSEG showed.

Tesla's gains boosted the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector .SPLRCD 1.7% to its highest level in nearly nine months.

Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O hit a record high and raced past $3 trillion in market capitalization, lifting the communication services sector .SPLRCL.

Nvidia NVDA.O pared its losses from earlier in the session. It had slipped after China's market regulator said it will continue an investigation into the AI chip leader after preliminary findings showed it had violated the country's anti-monopoly law.

Other chipmakers that faced pressure after China launched an anti-discrimination investigation into U.S. chip trade policies and a separate probe into dumping practices, pared earlier declines.

At 12:02 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 5.86 points, or 0.01%, to 45,828.28, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 29.50 points, or 0.45%, to 6,613.79 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 184.13 points, or 0.83%, to 22,325.23.

Declines in Sherwin-Williams SHW.N and McDonald's MCD.N limited gains on the Dow.

Wall Street's three main indexes had logged weekly gains in the previous session, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hitting intraday record highs on Friday as technology-linked stocks remained resilient.

The major indexes have performed positively thus far in September, a month considered historically bad for U.S. equities. The benchmark S&P 500 has shed 1.5% on average in the month since 2000, data compiled by LSEG showed.

Among the final datasets before the Fed's September 16-17 meeting, Tuesday's retail sales report will provide crucial insights into the U.S. consumer's health, following a slightly hotter-than-expected inflation reading last week.

Intel INTC.O gained 3.8% after the chipmaker trimmed its full-year expense outlook.

CoreWeave CRWV.O jumped 6.2% after the data center operator signed a deal with Nvidia that guarantees that the chipmaker will purchase any residual cloud capacity not sold to customers. The deal's initial value is $6.3 billion.

Kerrisdale Capital disclosed a short position on CoreWeave.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.87-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.16-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and seven new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 101 new highs and 47 new lows.