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NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes inched higher on Wednesday, after a stronger-than-expected private payrolls report and an ongoing court hearing on US tariffs buoyed investor sentiment, while technology stocks steadied following a sharp sell-off. The ADP employment report showed US private payrolls rebounded sharply in October, while the Institute for Supply Management reported services sector activity picked up. The datasets did little to alter expectations around the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path. Meanwhile, the lawyer representing US President Donald Trump’s administration faced tough questions from the Supreme Court over the legality of the sweeping tariffs. Odds of the top court ruling in favor of the tariffs dropped to 24 percent from 38 percent before the hearing commenced, as per betting website Polymarket. “The market might be thinking that if Trump loses the tariff battle, it might indicate that inflation could begin to come down... that opens the door to a series of rate cuts,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities. Tech stocks recovered, with Nvidia gaining 1.3 percent and Broadcom rising 2.8 percent. The broader information technology sector was up 0.6 percent, after falling over 2 percent in the previous session. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 had marked their biggest one-day percentage drop in nearly a month on Tuesday, after warnings of a market pullback by US bank CEOs and bearish views from hedge funds on the AI trade prompted a tech-led sell-off. Advanced Micro Devices, which announced an upbeat forecast on Tuesday, pared premarket declines. “The momentum rally has a high retail investor aspect to it this cycle and the buy-the-dip mentality is a prominent feature,” said Eric Teal, Comerica Wealth Management’s chief investment officer. The benchmark S&P 500 was recently trading at 23.3 times forward earnings, which is its highest since the start of the century and well above its 20-year average of 16, according to data compiled by LSEG. At 12:27 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 291.67 points, or 0.62 percent, to 47,376.91, the S&P 500 gained 47.73 points, or 0.70 percent, to 6,819.28 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 213.41 points, or 0.91 percent, to 23,562.04. Energy stocks gained 1.2 percent. Targa Resources was up 6.2 percent after beating profit estimates for the third quarter. Amgen and McDonald’s gained 7.4 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, after their quarterly results, lifting the Dow. There was little reaction in stocks after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected as mayor of New York City. Investors and the Fed will also focus on more private data with the US government shutdown becoming the longest in history. Bank of America slipped 1.4 percent even as the second-largest lender in the US raised its profitability target. Eli Lilly gained 4.8 percent. The company’s Danish rival Novo Nordisk lowered its fiscal-year profit and sales forecast. Health insurer Humana slipped almost 8 percent after its third-quarter results, while Johnson Controls was among the biggest gainers on the S&P 500 after it forecast 2026 profit above expectations.
