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Amazon ( AMZN ) drops after report on EU investigation next year

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Alphabet slips after Justice Department pushes for Chrome

sale

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Deere shares up after Q4 profit beats estimates

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Indexes up: Dow 1.06%, S&P 0.53%, Nasdaq 0.03%

(Updates after the market close)

By Abigail Summerville

Nov 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes closed

higher after choppy trading on Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow

and the S&P 500 hitting one-week tops.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gains were aided by cloud

company Salesforce's ( CRM ) 3.1% advance after three brokerages

lifted their price targets on the stock.

Shares of Wall Street's biggest company, Nvidia ( NVDA ),

added 0.5% after teetering following its earnings release on

Wednesday. The chip company surpassed expectations for quarterly

results, and projected fourth-quarter revenue above estimates.

"(Nvidia's ( NVDA )) earnings report was really, really good. Some of

the whisper numbers were higher and they disappointed there, but

the fundamentals of AI and Nvidia ( NVDA ) continue to fire on all

cylinders and the outlook for next year is positive," said

Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise

Financial.

Some investors were unimpressed that the forecast was its

slowest in seven quarters.

The broader Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index

climbed 1.6%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 461.88 points,

or 1.06%, to 43,870.35, the S&P 500 gained 31.60 points,

or 0.53%, to 5,948.71 and the Nasdaq Composite gained

6.28 points, or 0.03%, to 18,972.42.

Alphabet slid 4.7% to touch a four-week low after

the Justice Department argued to a judge that Google must sell

its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its monopoly

on online search.

The stock's losses weighed on the communication services

sector, which was the biggest sectoral decliner,

falling 1.73%. Utilities stocks led the S&P higher.

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) fell 2.2% after a report said it will

likely face an EU investigation next year into whether it favors

its own brand products on its online marketplace.

On the data front, a weekly report on jobless claims showed

they fell unexpectedly last week, suggesting a rebound in job

growth in November.

Investors will be closely monitoring commentary from Federal

Reserve officials before the mid-December FOMC meeting.

Money-market bets favor a 25-basis-point interest rate cut

by the Fed in December, according to the CME Group's FedWatch.

"We've moved on from the election a bit, we got the Nvidia ( NVDA )

report, so the next thing markets will look for is the Fed

meeting, and some policy speak from Fed officials this week have

pointed to maybe a pause in the making for December," Saglimbene

said.

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the United States is

more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the past,

according to a media report.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said on

Thursday he supports further interest rate cuts and is open to

doing them more slowly.

Traders also monitored geopolitical tensions between Ukraine

and Russia that sent crude prices higher and aided a 0.8% gain

in the energy sector.

Shares of machinery manufacturer Deere gained 8%

after reporting an upbeat fourth-quarter profit, while AI

company Snowflake jumped 32.7% after raising its annual

product revenue forecast.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.17-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE. There were 380 new highs and 88 new lows on the

NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,875 stocks rose and 1,444 fell as advancing

issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.99-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500

posted 67 new 52-week highs and four new lows while the Nasdaq

Composite recorded 138 new highs and 149 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 15.32 billion shares, compared

with the 14.55-billion average for the full session over the

last 20 trading days.