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S&P 500 crosses 5,600 mark for first time

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TSMC up on strong Q2 revenue growth

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Intuit to cut about 1,800 jobs; shares fall

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Indexes: S&P 500 +0.69%, Nasdaq +0.99%, Dow +0.48%

(Updates at 2:19 pm ET / 1819 GMT)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Ankika Biswas

July 10 (Reuters) -

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit record highs on Wednesday fueled

by gains in Nvidia ( NVDA ) and other Wall Street heavyweights ahead of

inflation data and quarterly earnings reports due this week.

It was the fifth straight day of intraday record highs for

the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 crossed 5,600 for the

first time as expectations of an interest-rate cut in September

climbed following comments this week by Federal Reserve Chair

Jerome Powell.

Powell said in his second day of Congressional testimony

that he was not ready to conclude that inflation was moving

sustainably down to 2%, although he expressed "some confidence

of that".

The Philadelphia semiconductor index jumped 2% to a

record high after contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing Co ( TSM ) posted strong quarterly revenue.

"TSMC's report supported the AI narrative, so that more than

anything else today is a pretty important data point," said

Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments

in Atlanta.

Micron Technology ( MU ) rallied almost 4%, while Nvidia ( NVDA )

rose 2.3% to a three-week high.

Apple ( AAPL ) climbed 1.4% to a record high, lifting

its stock market value to almost $3.6 trillion.

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, 10 rose, led by

information technology, up 1.24%, followed by a 0.97%

gain in materials.

With just a handful of large-cap stocks fueling Wall

Street's rally this year, some investors worry about a potential

selloff if those companies' earnings fail to meet high

expectations.

The S&P 500 was up 0.69% at 5,615.50 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.99% to 18,610.88 points, while the

Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.48% at 39,482.11 points.

U.S. inflation data due this week include the Consumer Price

Index on Thursday and the Producer Price Index report on Friday.

Expectations of a 25-basis-point rate cut by September

ticked up to 74% from around 70% on Tuesday and 45% a month ago,

according to CME's FedWatch.

Second-quarter earnings season, which kicks off this week

with major banks reporting on Friday, will test whether

high-flying megacaps can justify expensive valuations and extend

their strong runs.

Intuit dropped 3% after the TurboTax owner said it

plans to lay off about 10% of its workforce.

Gene-sequencing equipment maker Illumina ( ILMN ) jumped

6.5% on plans to acquire privately held Fluent BioSciences.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P

500 by a 2.3-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 27 new highs and 10 new lows; the

Nasdaq recorded 54 new highs and 104 new lows.