Wall Street hits record highs, S&P 500 pierces 2,500

Wall Street reached record highs on Friday, with the S&P 500 surpassing 2,500 points as telecommunications shares rose and technology bounced back after two days of declines.

The S&P 500 information technology sector <.splrct> rose 0.30 percent, powered by an Nvidia-led surge in chipmakers, while Apple rose 1.01 percent in its first gain since unveiling new iPhones on Tuesday.

The semiconductor index <.sox> surged 1.71 percent, boosted by Nvidia`s 6.32-percent jump to a record high after Evercore ISI raised its price target on the stock.

The S&P 500 tech index has been the best performing sector this year, rising more than 25 percent, far outpacing the broader S&P 500`s 11.6-percent growth.

AT&T rose 2.15 percent and Verizon Communications added 1.44 percent. Along with T-Mobile, they are offering deals for the newest iPhones that are less generous than in the past.

Wall Street largely shrugged off reports showing an unexpected drop in U.S. retail sales last month and the first drop in industrial output since January, both in part due to the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

"Investors are keeping an eye on the retail sales data, thinking it may be transitory, and are focusing on growth areas such as technology, which is mostly immune to policy decisions in D.C. and has avoided all the global noise," said Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.

U.S. stocks have surged this year, despite turmoil in the White House, doubts about President Donald Trump`s ability to push through his pro-business reforms, uncertainty over the timing of interest rate hikes, and lately, tensions over Pyongyang`s missile tests.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.dji> rose 0.29 percent to end at 22,268.34 points, while the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 0.18 percent to 2,500.23, records for both.

The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 0.3 percent to 6,448.47.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.76-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.47-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

Earlier, North Korea fired a second missile in as many weeks over Japan, drawing criticism from global leaders but barely moving shares as investors await the next catalyst - the Federal Reserve`s meeting on Sept. 19-20.

The S&P 500 is trading near 17.6 times expected earnings, down from 17.9 at the end of July but still much higher than its 10-year average of 14.3, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Boeing rose 1.53 percent to a record high after Canaccord Genuity raised its price target for the stock.

Among the laggards was Oracle , which sank 7.67 percent, its worst day in more than four years after disappointing forecasts for its profit and cloud business.

About 8.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 20-day average of 5.9 billion shares.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)