Wall Street moves higher, led by tech; Nasdaq hits record

A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

The Nasdaq hit a record intraday high on Tuesday, with the overall gain in U.S. stocks led by technology and financial companies, as investors weighed the prospect of an interest rate hike this year.As the U.S. earnings season winds down, the focus shifts to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's upcoming speech on Friday at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for clues on when the central bank will raise rates.

Yellen's stance will either support or dismiss the perceived hawkish stand that Fed policymakers have taken in recent days. Various officials, including Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, have hinted that a rate hike in the coming months was possible.

Traders' bets of a rate hike in September stand at 15 percent, and go up to 40 percent for December, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
"... By no means will the Fed want to cut off the bait for the September or December meeting," said Steven Wieting, global chief investment strategist at Citi Private Bank.

At 9:38 a.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 93.14 points, or 0.5 percent, at 18,622.56.
The S&P 500 .SPX was up 9.57 points, or 0.44 percent, at 2,192.21, just 1 point away from its all-time intraday high.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 24.05 points, or 0.46 percent, at 5,268.66. It hit a record high of 5,272.51.

All 10 major S&P 500 indexes were higher. The technology index .SPLRCT rose 0.61 percent, boosted by gains in Apple (AAPL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) among others.
The financial index .SPSY rose 0.47 percent.

The materials sector .SPLRCM gained 0.99 percent, mainly due to Monsanto's (MON.N) 4 percent rise on a Bloomberg report that the U.S. seeds company's merger talks with German suitor Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) were advancing toward a deal.
Shares of Best Buy (BBY.N) jumped 16.6 percent after the electronics retailer posted a surprise rise in quarterly comparable store sales. The stock was the top percentage gainer on the S&P 500.
J.M. Smucker (SJM.N) dropped 5.9 percent to $147.56 after the processed foods maker posted lower-than-expected quarterly sales.

Zoe's Kitchen (ZOES.N) plunged 18.4 percent to $30.28 after the restaurant chain operator's second-quarter revenue missed analysts' expectations.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,245 to 418. On the Nasdaq, 1,639 issues rose and 579 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 19 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 66 new highs and five new lows.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)