Wall Street today: US stocks gain, all eyes on Jackson Hole summit

US stock indices gained on Monday as all eyes are on Jackson Hole Economic Symposium to be held later this week.

At the symposium, global central bank officials, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, will speak on policy issues.

Investors will try to seek clues from Powell’s keynote speech on Friday and other Fed speakers on monetary policy easing.

At 09:46 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 95.80 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 40,755.61, the S&P 500 gained 8.98 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 5,563.23 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 14.39 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 17,646.11.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.1 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 40,670.83. The S&P 500 rose 3.0 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 5,557.23, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 18.0 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 17,649.741.

Advanced Micro Devices stock rose 2.3 per cent after the chipmaker said it would buy ZT Systems, a supplier in the cloud computing and artificial intelligence industries, for $4.9 billion.

Google-parent Alphabet’s stock added 1.6 per cent.

Estee Lauder stock declined 1.9 per cent after the cosmetics maker forecast annual profit below Wall Street estimates.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 3.89 per cent from 3.88 per cent late on Friday.

Bullion

Gold prices fell on Monday as investors booked profits from the record rally.

Spot gold was down 0.4 per cent at $2,497.28 per ounce as of 10:06 am ET (1406 GMT). US gold futures edged 0.1 per cent lower to $2,535.50.

Silver rose 0.6 per cent to $29.17 per ounce.

Crude oil

Oil prices eased on Monday as concern over demand in top oil importer China weighed on market sentiment.

Brent crude futures dropped 19 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $79.49 a barrel by 1332 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures was 1 cent lower at $76.64.