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PDD Holdings ( PDD ) slumps after quarterly revenue miss

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Oil companies up on supply disruption fears, Middle East

tensions

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Dow hits intraday record high

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Indexes: Dow up 0.42%, S&P 500 up 0.11%, Nasdaq off 0.20%

(Updated at 9:58 a.m. ET/1358 GMT)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Aug 26 (Reuters) -

The Dow and the S&P 500 inched up in choppy trading on

Monday as markets cemented bets on an imminent rate cut by the

Federal Reserve and awaited Nvidia ( NVDA ) results later in the week,

while energy stocks were boosted after crude oil prices jumped.

The blue-chip index led gains among peers and hit an

intraday record high as markets welcomed U.S. Federal Reserve

Chair Jerome Powell's comments on Friday, when he said "the time

has come" to lower borrowing costs in the light of diminishing

upside risk to inflation and moderating labor demand.

The main indexes rallied more than 1% in the previous

session, with the benchmark S&P 500 also nearing record

highs. Rate-sensitive small caps logged their strongest

day in six week as equities continued to pare losses from the

market rout in early August.

Odds of a 25-basis-point rate cut stand at 69.5%, while

those of a 50-bps cut are at 30.5%, according to the CME Group's

FedWatch tool.

"The name of the game is the Fed. They did what the

markets anticipated, so that's good news that they're going to

start the easing cycle," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great

Hill Capital LLC.

Attention will turn to the gross domestic product estimates

for the second quarter and July's Personal Consumption

Expenditure data, the central bank's preferred inflation gauge,

due later in the week.

At 9:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was

up 171.49 points, or 0.42%, at 41,346.57, the S&P 500 was

up 6.01 points, or 0.11%, at 5,640.62, and the Nasdaq Composite

was down 36.60 points, or 0.20%, at 17,841.20.

A majority of the S&P 500 sectors advanced, led by a 1.7%

rise in Energy stocks, which hit a one-week high as

crude prices jumped nearly 3%. Reports of production stoppages

in Libya piled on to fears of supply disruptions from the Middle

East as the geopolitical conflict continued.

As earnings season draws to a close, chip designer and

AI-favorite Nvidia ( NVDA ), whose results are scheduled on

Wednesday, traded up 0.4%.

Markets have been less forgiving this quarter of highly

valued megacap stocks, which spearheaded the excitement around

artificial intelligence.

They will scrutinize Nvidia's ( NVDA ) earnings to justify the

stock's more than 160% year-to-date jump, which pushed its

market cap value to No. 2, just below that of Apple ( AAPL ), as

of Friday's close.

"The two concerns and risks are going to be their (Nvidia's ( NVDA ))

gross margins... and their guidance," Hayes said.

Results from Dell, Salesforce ( CRM ), Dollar

General ( DG ) and Gap are expected through the week.

Limiting gains on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, U.S.-listed

shares of PDD Holdings ( PDD ) sank 26.8% after the Temu-owner

missed market expectations for second-quarter revenue.

Boeing ( BA ) slipped 0.40% after NASA picked SpaceX over

the planemaker's Starliner to return its astronauts from space

next year.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.28-to-1

ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.64-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 78 new 52-week highs and no new lows,

while the Nasdaq recorded 108 new highs and 10 new lows.