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Dow ends at record peak for fourth session in five

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Retail sales rise 0.4% in September

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TSMC gains after forecasting Q4 revenue jump

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Travelers, Blackstone jump after Q3 profit beats

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Elevance Health ( ELV ) down after cutting annual profit forecast

(Updates to close)

By David French

Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average

ended higher on Thursday, its fourth record close in the last

five sessions, as stronger-than-expected monthly retail sales

indicated a robust U.S. consumer and chips stocks were buoyed by

TSMC's upbeat forecast.

The other main Wall Street benchmarks, the S&P 500 and

the Nasdaq Composite, finished largely unchanged.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM ), the world's

largest contract chipmaker, beat market estimates for profit and

forecast a jump in fourth-quarter revenue, driven by demand for

artificial intelligence chips.

The chipmaker's U.S.-listed shares soared, while

AI-trade favorite and TSMC customer Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained.

The optimism spread to other chip stocks, sending the

broader Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index higher.

Fresh U.S. data confirmed healthy growth in the world's

largest economy, while keeping bets on a 25-basis-point rate cut

at the Federal Reserve's next meeting largely intact at 89.4%,

according to CME's FedWatch.

U.S. retail sales increased 0.4% in September, slightly more

than expected, while weekly jobless claims fell unexpectedly.

A broadly upbeat start to the third-quarter earnings season,

strong economic data and the Fed kicking off its policy-easing

cycle have pushed the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs in

recent sessions, with the latter close to the psychologically

important 6,000 mark.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 0.99

points, or 0.02%, to end at 5,841.48 points, while the Nasdaq

Composite gained 6.46 points, or 0.04%, to 18,373.54.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 164.01 points, or

0.38%, to 43,241.71.

Josh Jamner, investment strategy analyst at ClearBridge

Investments, said investors have been revising economic and

earnings growth expectations as robust data eased worries about

a recession.

However, there was still a question of leadership in

markets, and as investors wrestled with this, and the level of

rotation happening, this has left the market slowly grinding

higher.

"Overall, it's allowing the market to advance, but maybe

in a somewhat more restrained fashion than what otherwise might

be expected," Jamner said.

Highlighting this was the fact the Dow advanced for the

second straight day, but small cap indexes fell. The Russell

2000 and the S&P Small Cap 600 were down, having

both closed at their highest in nearly three years on Wednesday.

A majority of S&P 500 sectors were also in negative

territory, including rate-sensitive indexes such as utilities

and real estate.

One other quirk is that U.S. equity benchmarks have advanced

in recent days even as U.S. Treasury yields have crept up. On

Thursday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note

rose 7.5 basis points to 4.091%.

In earnings-related moves, Travelers Companies ( TRV ) and

Blackstone Group advanced after both the insurer and the

money manager posted third-quarter profit which beat market

expectations.

The S&P Banks index rose for the fifth straight

session as a slew of larger regional banks posted third-quarter

numbers. M&T Bank ( MTB ) and Synovus Financial ( SNV ) rose,

but Truist Financial ( TFC ) dropped.

Outside financials, health insurer Elevance Health ( ELV )

plummeted after slashing its full-year profit forecast.