By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) - The Nasdaq led the charge on Wall Street on Monday, with a focus on tech stocks ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's meeting.
The central bank is expected to maintain borrowing costs and offer insights into its monetary policy. Alphabet surged 6.4% on reports of potential integration of Google's Gemini AI engine into the iPhone by Apple.
Tesla announced a price hike of about 2,000 euros ($2,177) for its Model Y EVs in some European countries on March 22, boosting its stock by 2.8%. Nvidia rose 3.8% at its annual developer conference, with investors eager for updates on new chip releases from CEO Jensen Huang.
Peers Micron Technology and Intel also saw gains, adding 2.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Higher-than-expected inflation figures last week prompted investors to reassess expectations of rate cuts in 2024, with a June rate cut now at a 59% probability, down from 71% the previous week.
Despite this, Wall Street, fueled by optimism in AI, reached new highs in March before a recent pullback.
Goldman Sachs revised its forecast to three interest rate cuts in 2024 after stronger inflation data. Nasdaq resolved a connectivity issue related to stock orders after a two-hour delay.
As of 9:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 150.05 points, the S&P 500 up 49.30 points, and the Nasdaq Composite up 218.65 points.
All 11 major S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with communication services leading with a 3.1% increase.
Xpeng's U.S.-listed shares rose 7.4% on plans to launch a more affordable EV brand. Boeing fell 1.6% following a subpoena related to an Alaska Airlines flight incident.
Super Micro Computer climbed 6.3% as it joined the S&P 500.
Advancing issues surpassed decliners on both the NYSE and Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 19 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 23 new highs and 27 new lows.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Maju Samuel)