Wall St indexes post record closing highs again, with Nvidia, tech shares higher

• Nvidia shares up after it says it will invest $100 bln in OpenAI
• Apple shares up after brokerage raises target price
• Some Fed officials cast doubt on need for further rate cuts
• Indexes: Dow up 0.1%, S&P 500 up 0.4%, Nasdaq up 0.7%

NEW YORK, Sept 22 (Reuters) - All three major U.S. stock indexes registered record closing highs for a third straight session on Monday, led by gains in technology shares, with Nvidia NVDA.O gaining after it said it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI.

Shares of Nvidia gained 3.9%. Nvidia will also supply OpenAI with data center chips, the companies said, which further stoked optimism about AI prospects.

Shares of Apple AAPL.O rose 4.3% after Wedbush raised the stock's target price on strong demand signs for the iPhone 17, while Tesla TSLA.O climbed 1.9%. Technology .SPLRCT led S&P 500 sector gains and ended 1.7% higher.

Some Federal Reserve officials made remarks doubting the need for further rate cuts. Last week, the U.S. central bank cut interest rates for the first time since December and indicated more cuts would come 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."

The S&P 500 is now up 13.8% for the year so far and up 3.6% for September, a month that is historically weak for stocks.

"We're certainly pointing out to clients and having portfolios reflect that we're at all-time highs and valuations are getting stretched," said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president and advisor for Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.

"There needs to be a catalyst for stocks to move materially higher, and markets appear to be kind of ignoring potential headwinds," he said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 66.27 points, or 0.14%, to 46,381.54, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 29.39 points, or 0.44%, to 6,693.75 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 157.50 points, or 0.70%, to 22,788.98.

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 Tylenol maker Kenvue KVUE.N fell 7.5% during the session as investors braced for Trump to make an announcement linking the pain-killer to autism. After the closing bell, Trump said the Food and Drug Administration will tell doctors to advise pregnant women against using acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. But after the announcement, Kenvue shares bounced up 4.7%.

Among key economic reports this week will be one on the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index, a closely watched inflation gauge.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.22-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 559 new highs and 99 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,716 stocks rose and 1,963 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.38-to-1 ratio.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 18.65 billion shares, compared with the 17.5 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.