Nasdaq, S&P Again Hit All-time Highs

The Dow Jones reversed its early doldrums and gained 0.3 percent to close at 28,331.

The Nasdaq posted its fifth consecutive all-time high close, after jumping 1.7 percent to 11,665, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.0 percent to finish at 3,787, its fourth straight record.

Traders also may be putting a lot of stock in the highly-anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, which is expected to send signals about the trajectory of interest rates in the coming months.

But the changes Powell is set to preview about how the central bank communicates policy would not have any impact until the economy starts to recover and inflation shows signs of life.

Analysts say the Fed chief could change the policy focus to allow inflation to rise above 2.0 percent for a time, to allow the economy to heat up and unemployment to fall.

"Some of the stock market being up is a little bit of hopeful trading regarding this speech," said JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade, suggesting observers might be disappointed.

But "people have money to invest" and the big tech names Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Netflix "are continuing to just find buyer after buyer" and sometimes post double digit gains for no apparent reason.

Meanwhile, category 4 Hurricane Laura and its four-to-six metre storm surges is poised to slam into the southern US coast, home to massive oil and petrochemical industries.

Government data showed a surge of a different kind as new orders for big-ticket manufactured goods jumped 11.2 percent, almost entirely due to the 35.6 percent spike in transportation equipment.

Among individual shares, cloud computing firm Salesforce.com, which will join the Dow index on Monday in place of global oil giant Exxon Mobil, leapt 26 percent after a strong earnings report.

Dick's Sporting Goods jumps 15.7 percent as earnings showed store sales surged despite the pandemic - which has allowed home exercise programmes to flourish.

Apple, which is poised to make a four-to-one stock split after its value soared to US$2 trillion, gained 1.4 percent. (AFP)