Wall Street ends higher as investors turn to earnings season

By Noel Randewich and Ragini Mathur

July 10 (Reuters) - ‌The S&P 500 rose ​to end ​just short of a record high on Friday, as a blockbuster Nasdaq debut of South Korea's SK Hynix fueled optimism about memory-chip makers, while investors looked ahead to quarterly earnings season kicking off next week.

The ‌artificial intelligence trade returned to the spotlight after SK Hynix ended 13% above its offering price ⁠at $170 in a high-profile U.S. listing. The semiconductor company raised over $26 billion on Thursday by selling American Depositary Receipts priced at $149 each.

U.S. stocks added to ‌gains after U.S. President Donald Trump ‌said that Iran had asked to continue talks and the U.S. had agreed, but that the June ceasefire was "over."

Attacks between the U.S. and Iran this week revived concerns that high energy prices could fuel more inflation and force the ​Federal Reserve to hike interest rates.

Reports from big U.S. banks will kick off the second-quarter earnings season next week. Analysts are expecting S&P 500 earnings to surge 24% from a year earlier, with technology companies driving much of the growth, ⁠according to LSEG I/B/E/S.

"This is a high-bar quarter with a narrow margin of error," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis, ​Minnesota. "The banks will give us a good read on the underlying economic strength and what consumers and businesses are doing."

Thanks to increased corporate profit estimates, the S&P 500 is trading at ​about 20 times expected earnings, down from an earnings multiple of 21 ‌in late May, even though the benchmark is trading near record highs.

Chipmakers have been among the biggest beneficiaries of this year's AI-driven rally, fueled by expectations of heavy spending by hyperscalers. But ⁠concerns over stretched valuations and profit taking have recently injected volatility into the sector.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.42% to end the session at 7,575.39 points. It remains down 0.45% from its June 2 record-high close.

The Nasdaq gained 0.29% to 26,281.61 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial ⁠Average rose 0.29% to 52,637.01 points.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by information technology, up 1.65%, followed by a 1.46% ​gain in consumer discretionary.

The PHLX chip index gained 0.06%, up for a third straight day.

For the week, the S&P 500 added 1.2%, the Nasdaq climbed 1.7% and the Dow fell 0.5%.

Meta Platforms jumped 6% to its highest level since April.

Moderna tumbled almost 11% in its worst ‌day in over a year.

Next week's June inflation data will offer fresh insight into the Fed's likely monetary policy path, while Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is also scheduled to testify before ‌the House Committee on Financial Services.

Delta Air Lines dropped 1.8%, even after forecasting third-quarter profit above expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the ⁠S&P 500 by a 2.1-to-one ratio.

Volume on U.S. ‌exchanges was relatively light, with 14.5 billion ​shares traded, compared with an average of 22.4 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Ragini Mathur and Avinash P in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli ‌and Matthew Lewis)

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