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In a first, S&P 500 crosses 5,600 mark

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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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Illumina rises after acquiring Fluent BioSciences

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Indexes up: Dow 0.31%, S&P 0.42%, Nasdaq 0.54%

(Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET/1615 GMT)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Ankika Biswas

July 10 (Reuters) -

Wall Street rose on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500

again touching record highs as strength in Nvidia ( NVDA ) and other mega

stocks kept investor sentiment bullish before crucial inflation

data and second-quarter earnings later this week.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched their fifth straight

intraday record highs, with the benchmark index crossing the

5,600 level for the first time, as hopes for an interest-rate

cut in September received a boost from Jerome Powell's statement

that the U.S. was "no longer an overheated economy".

Nvidia ( NVDA ) jumped 2.4% to hit a nearly three-week high,

while Micron Technology ( MU ), Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD )

and ON Semiconductor all rose more than 3% after Taiwan

Semiconductor Manufacturing Co posted a second-quarter

revenue beat.

U.S.-listed shares of the world's largest contract chip

maker climbed 2.6%. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index

touched a record high for the second straight session.

Of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" stocks, Alphabet

and Microsoft ( MSFT ) rose 0.7% and 0.2%,

respectively. Apple ( AAPL ) also climbed 1.6% to a record high,

as U.S. Treasury yields slipped.

The S&P 500 Materials Index topped sectoral

gainers, with nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sector indexes in

the green. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.6%.

With just a handful of large-cap stocks supporting Wall

Street's banner rally this year, participants have been

wondering when other sections of the market will catch up,

leading some to call for greater diversification.

Federal Reserve Chair

Powell

said on 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".

His comments come ahead of key inflation data this week,

with the Consumer Price Index due on Thursday and the Producer

Price Index report on Friday.

"We expect to see continued albeit slow disinflation...

and with increasing signs that the U.S. economy is slowing down,

we believe that the Fed could be in a position to lower interest

rates in September," said Julien Lafargue, chief market

strategist at Barclays Private Bank.

Bets on a 25-basis-point rate cut by September ticked up to

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

according to CME's FedWatch.

The second-quarter earnings season, which kicks off this

week with major banks reporting on Friday, will be a key test

for whether high-flying megacaps can justify expensive

valuations and continue their strong runs.

At 12:15 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 122.21 points, or 0.31%, at 39,414.18, the S&P 500

was up 23.63 points, or 0.42%, at 5,600.61, and the Nasdaq

Composite was up 99.39 points, or 0.54%, at 18,528.68.

TurboTax parent Intuit, which plans to lay off

about 10% of its workforce, lost 4.0%.

Gene-sequencing equipment maker Illumina jumped

4.9% on plans to acquire privately held Fluent BioSciences.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.66-to-1

ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.47-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 21 new 52-week highs and nine new

lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 41 new highs and 91 new lows.