NEW YORK - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday in a shortened trading session, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices closing at record highs. Investors bought shares across various sectors, taking advantage of the positive sentiment that has been prevalent in the markets leading up to the end of the year. For example, shares of Nike rose, partly due to a report that Apple CEO Tim Cook purchased $3 million (over 61 million Czech crowns) worth of the company's stock. The U.S. dollar strengthened slightly against major currencies in the foreign exchange market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which includes shares of thirty leading U.S. companies, rose by 0.60% to a record high of 48,731.16 points. The broader S&P 500 index gained 0.32% and closed the day at 6932.05 points, also a record closing level. The Nasdaq Composite index, which includes many companies in the advanced technology sector, rose by 0.22% to 23,613.31 points.

U.S. stock market indices have been rising in recent days, partly due to a rebound in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks after a sell-off last week. The sell-off was driven by concerns about inflated valuations and high capital expenditures, which are reducing corporate profits. However, recent data has shown that the U.S. economy remains resilient, and the market is still anticipating interest rate cuts next year.

The U.S. central bank (the Federal Reserve) lowered the benchmark interest rate to a range of 3.50% to 3.75% this month. Analysts expect the Fed to cut the benchmark interest rate by a total of half a percentage point next year, but most do not expect a rate cut in January, as indicated by the FedWatch tool on the CME exchange. Trading volumes were low today due to the holiday season. Today's trading ended three hours earlier than usual, and the markets will be closed completely on Thursday. Trading will resume in full on Friday, December 26th.

"Yields are performing well, volumes are low, but the themes remain the same – artificial intelligence is doing very well, and there is talk of positive factors and new models from OpenAI and Meta, which are fueling the debate," said Tim Ghriskey, chief analyst at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "The Fed probably won't cut rates again, at least not for some time. Who knows what will happen when May comes and we have a new Fed chairman. But the probability of a rate cut in January is very low," he said regarding the interest rate outlook.

In the foreign exchange market, the U.S. dollar strengthened slightly. Its index, which measures the value of the dollar against a basket of six major world currencies, was trading near 97.9860 shortly after 7:00 PM CET, showing a gain of less than 0.1%. The euro lost more than 0.1% against the dollar, trading at 1.1777 USD. The dollar was trading near 155.98 JPY against the Japanese yen, a decline of approximately 0.1%. The euro lost almost 0.3% against the yen, trading at 183.61 JPY.

CTK/ceskenoviny.cz/gnews.cz-jav