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CVS gains after report Glenview to meet with executives

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Investors digest Powell comments at conference

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Indexes up: Dow up 0.04%, S&P 500 up 0.4%, Nasdaq up 0.4%

(Updates to 4:45 p.m. ET)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 sputtered to a record high close on Monday,

rebounding from a brief setback after Federal Reserve Chair

Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is in no hurry to

implement further interest rate cuts.

The Dow also posted an all-time closing high. The three

major U.S. stock indexes registered gains for the quarter and

for the month.

Powell, at a National Association for Business Economics

conference in Nashville, Tennessee, said he sees two more rate

cuts, totaling 50 basis points, this year as a baseline if the

economy evolves as expected.

"The majority of investors think all of the Fed's

activities are baked in for the remainder of the year. (But) I

think there's more to 2024 Fed than maybe we know about," said

Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset

Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"In fact, the soft landing could actually happen."

The Fed earlier this month began a new easing cycle

with a large 50 basis point rate cut.

Traders are pricing in a 35% chance of a 50 basis point

reduction in November, down from around 37% before Powell's

speech and 53% on Friday, the CME Group's FedWatch Tool showed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.15

points, or 0.04%, to 42,330.15. The S&P 500 gained 24.31

points, or 0.42%, at 5,762.48 and the Nasdaq Composite

advanced 69.58 points, or 0.38%, to 18,189.17.

For the month, the S&P 500 gained 2% and posted its best

September since 2013 and a fifth straight month of increases.

For the quarter, the S&P 500 rose 5.5%, the Nasdaq gained 2.6%

and the Dow climbed 8.2%.

The S&P 500 extended losses following Powell's remarks

but recovered heading into the close. Strategists said

quarter-end activity could have also helped the market late in

the day.

"You've got momentum trading and classic window dressing

at the end of the quarter, where you're buying the winners and

selling the losers," Dollarhide said.

Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial

in Charlotte, North Carolina, noted that the Fed will have much

more data to review before its November meeting.

Key economic reports due this week include jobless claims

and monthly payrolls.

CVS Health ( CVS ) rose 2.4% after a report showed hedge

fund Glenview Capital Management will meet top executives at the

healthcare company to propose ways to improve operations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a

1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.00-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and two new

lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 82 new highs and 88 new

lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.64 billion shares,

compared with the 11.93 billion average for the full session

over the last 20 trading days.

(Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal in

Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Richard Chang and Andrea

Ricci)