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

By Abigail Summerville and Ragini Mathur

Sept 15 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit intraday record highs on Monday, as Wall Street awaits the Federal Reserve's crucial policy meeting later this week, while Tesla shares climbed following CEO Elon Musk's stock purchase.

The electric vehicle maker TSLA.O jumped 4.3% after regulatory filings revealed Musk had acquired nearly $1 billion worth of Tesla's stock on Friday.

The Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 16 and 17 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 market is counting on sort of a goldilocks scenario where the employment market is just weak enough to prompt the Federal Reserve to start a rate cutting series, not just one, without disrupting overall growth,” said Carol Schleif, Chief Investment Officer at BMO Family Office. “I think the markets will be disappointed if the Fed doesn’t give some hint that they intend to continue rate cuts.”

Traders on Monday are pricing in a 96.1% chance of a 25-basis-point cut at this week's meeting.

Tesla's gains boosted the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector .SPLRCD 1.3% 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 up 2.1%.

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.

At 2:15 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 14.42 points, or 0.03%, to 45,819.99, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 25.84 points, or 0.39%, to 6,610.13 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 185.24 points, or 0.84%, to 22,326.34.

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.

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

CoreWeave CRWV.O jumped 7.4% 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 1.7-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.17-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and seven new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 108 new highs and 56 new lows.