US equities advance with broad gains; tech stocks rally continues

US stocks closed higher to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week on Monday, buoyed partly by a continued rebound by technology stocks in a broad advance that saw gains among almost all of the 11 S&P 500 sectors.

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The bounce in tech names began late last week and was driven by Micron Technology’s blowout forecasts and a cooler-than-expected inflation report, which has left the S&P 500 and Dow less than 1% from their record closing levels set on Dec. 11.

Nvidia shares rose and provided the biggest lift to the benchmark S&P 500. Reuters reported the company has told Chinese clients it aims to start shipping its second-most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February.

Micron climbed 4% while most other chipmakers also advanced to put the PHLX semiconductor index up 1.1%.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s going to go much higher; it’s going to continue to churn,” said Ken Polcari, partner and chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth in Jupiter, Florida.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 227.79 points, or 0.47%, to 48,362.68, the S&P 500 gained 43.99 points, or 0.64%, to 6,878.49 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 121.21 points, or 0.52%, to 23,428.83.