US STOCKS-Wall St indexes climb with Nvidia, tech shares; some Fed officials lukewarm on more rate cuts

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK Sept 22 (Reuters) - All three of the major U.S. stock indexes were higher Monday afternoon, with shares of Nvidia NVDA.O rising after it said it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, some Federal Reserve officials expressed doubts on the need for further U.S. interest rate cuts.

Nvidia shares were up 3.6%, giving the S&P 500 and Nasdaq their biggest boosts. Shares of Apple AAPL.O were up 3.8% after Wedbush raised the stock's target price on strong demand signs for the iPhone 17. The S&P 500 tech sector .SPLRCT was up 1.7%

Investors are closely following comments from Fed officials after the U.S. central bank last week cut rates by 25-basis-point cut and indicated more cuts at its upcoming meetings.

Both St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, in separate remarks, said that while the Fed's quarter of a percentage point rate cut at last week's meeting was appropriate as a way to manage the risk of rising unemployment, lowering inflation remains the priority.

However, Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who last week dissented when the Fed cut the benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point and said a half-point cut was warranted, said on Monday that monetary policy "is well into restrictive territory."

"There needs to be a catalyst for stocks to move materially higher, and markets appear to be kind of ignoring potential headwinds," said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president and advisor for Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.
"We're not making any calls that are broad-based or trying to time the market, but we're certainly pointing out to clients and having portfolios reflect that we're at all-time highs and valuations are getting stretched," he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 74.36 points, or 0.16%, to 46,389.63, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 29.82 points, or 0.45%, to 6,694.18 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 159.81 points, or 0.71%, to 22,791.29.

The three major indexes hit record closing highs for the last two sessions.

Also worrying some investors were U.S. President Donald Trump's new visa fees for foreign workers, which drew widespread condemnation from technology executives and others across social media.

Shares of Kenvue KVUE.N were down 6.5%. Trump was expected to give a Monday afternoon announcement linking the use of Kenvue's pain medication, Tylenol, to the development of autism during pregnancy, a claim which many doctors dispute.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.07-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 449 new highs and 92 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,510 stocks rose and 2,043 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.23-to-1 ratio.