By Purvi Agarwal and Ragini Mathur
(Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained on Wednesday after a favorable antitrust ruling for Alphabet boosted the Google parent's shares, while investors parsed a softer-than-expected job openings report for July.
Alphabet jumped 8.3% to hit an intraday record high after a Washington judge ruled late on Tuesday Google will not have to sell its Chrome browser, but will have to share data with rivals.
Apple also gained 8.4% as the ruling also allowed Google to keep making lucrative payments to the iPhone maker.
“It's helping tech stocks in general… we are not seeing the injection of tremendous confusion if Alphabet were required to sell off its browser or make some changes with its arrangement with Apple,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment officer at CFRA Research.
“That's allowing investors to breathe a sigh of relief.”
The communication services index gained 3.3% to hit a record high, and tech stocks gained 0.6%.
Strengthening bets of an imminent interest-rate cut, a Labor Department report showed job openings fell to 7.181 million in July, compared with 7.37 million estimated by economists polled by Reuters.
Traders are now pricing in a 95.6% chance of a September rate cut, per CME Group's FedWatch tool, compared with nearly 92% before the data.
This is the first in a series of jobs indicators expected this week that will culminate in Friday's highly anticipated nonfarm payrolls numbers.
Energy stocks fell 2%, tracking lower oil prices. The prospect of cheaper fuel boosted the passenger airlines index up 1.7%.
At 10:06 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 203.83 points, or 0.45%, to 45,091.98, the S&P 500 gained 21.34 points, or 0.33%, to 6,436.88 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 208.40 points, or 0.98%, to 21,488.03.
Declines in industrial stocks weighed on the Dow.
Wall Street closed sharply lower on Tuesday, after a court ruling last week deemed most of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s tariffs illegal, reviving some fiscal concerns and sparking a sell-off in U.S. Treasuries.
Yields on the 30-year note touched 5% on Wednesday for the first time since July 18, and was last at 4.912%.
September has been historically dour for U.S. equities, with the index losing 1.5% in the month on average since the turn of the century, according to data compiled by LSEG.
HSBC raised its 2025 year-end target for the S&P 500 to 6,500 from 6,400.
Department store operator Macy's soared 19.5% after raising its annual forecasts, but discount retailer Dollar Tree dropped 8.3% despite a forecast hike, becoming the biggest decliner on the S&P 500.
