By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged higher on Monday, lifted by shares of technology companies and Walmart, and as investors mostly brushed aside concerns about the U.S. Justice Department's criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The S&P 500 hit a record intraday high, with the technology sector up 0.8%. Shares of Walmart jumped 2.7%, giving a boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, where the retail giant moved its stock listing last month from the NYSE. Walmart is set to join the Nasdaq-100 index on January 20, a shift that could draw in billions of dollars from passive index funds. Stocks had opened lower after President Donald Trump's Justice Department threatened to indict Fed Chair Jerome Powell over his congressional testimony on a building renovation project. Powell called the move a "pretext" to gain more influence over interest rates that Trump has pressed to cut sharply since he took office in January 2025. "The news that Powell is being investigated by the Justice Department was basically telegraphed by Trump many times and so I think the market is taking it in stride," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. Investors also are looking ahead to the fourth-quarter U.S. earnings season, he said, which unofficially begins Tuesday with results from JPMorgan Chase and other big banks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.71 points to 49,503.96, the S&P 500 gained 12.76 points, or 0.19%, to 6,979.04 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 114.98 points, or 0.49%, to 23,786.33. Shares of lenders and credit card firms came under pressure after Trump called for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10% starting on January 20. Financials were down 1.2%, leading sector declines in the S&P 500. Citigroup tumbled 3.4%, while credit-card firm American Express shed 4.4%. Consumer finance firms also fell, including Capital One, down 7.4%. Shares of JPMorgan were down 2%. Buy-now, pay-later firm Affirm Holdings fell 5.6%. Investors were also bracing for Tuesday's U.S. consumer price index report, which could influence the outlook for Fed rate cuts. Markets for now are betting on at least two more quarter-point cuts before year-end, according to LSEG data. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 593 new highs and 42 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,528 stocks rose and 2,146 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.18-to-1 ratio. (Additional teporting by Medha Singh and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and David Gregorio)
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