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Goldman Sachs raises S&P 500 year-end target to 5,600

points

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Evercore ISI hikes year-end S&P 500 target to 6,000 points

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Autodesk ( ADSK ) up after report Starboard Value takes ~$500 mln

stake

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Indexes higher: Dow 0.04%, S&P 500 0.21%, Nasdaq 0.17%

(Updated at 12:08 p.m. ET/1608 GMT)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Ankika Biswas

June 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes edged

higher in choppy trading on Monday, as investors awaited fresh

economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials for

more clarity on monetary policy.

Apple ( AAPL ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) helped arrest the

losses with gains of 2.1% and 0.4%, while AI chip leader Nvidia ( NVDA )

retreated from a record high to fall 0.7%.

Some other chip stocks rose though, briefly sending the

Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index to an all-time high.

Broadcom ( AVGO ) and U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing Co were up around 3% each, while Micron

Technology ( MU ) jumped 3.5% after price-target raises by

brokerages.

Technology was the biggest gainer among the 11 S&P

500 sector indexes, while real estate and utilities

led declines.

"Technology is not only leading, it continues to lead and

does all the heavy lifting ... until we get to the next earnings

cycle there isn't really a catalyst to lift the market," said

Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets.

"(This week) I suspect we'll see a little bit of a slowdown

volume wise, because we've hit summer, there's no earnings and

the mid-week holiday."

Markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth

holiday.

Goldman Sachs raised its 2024 year-end target for the S&P

500 Index to 5,600 from 5,200 earlier, while Evercore ISI

raised its year-end target for the benchmark index to 6,000 from

4,750.

Both brokerages pointed to strength in the technology

sector and enthusiasm for artificial intelligence as reasons for

their upgrades.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hit

multiple all-time peaks in the previous week.

Markets are also keeping a close eye on upcoming comments

from the New York Fed's John Williams, Philadelphia Fed's

Patrick Harker and Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook later on Monday.

On the economic roster for the rest of the week are May

retail sales data on Tuesday, with industrial production,

housing starts and S&P flash PMI data among other key releases

due later in the week.

Recent hawkish projections from the Federal have somewhat

data pointing to growing weakness in the economy. The central

bank dialed back their projections for three rate cuts in 2024

to just one on Wednesday.

However, markets still expect about two 25-basis-point cuts

this year, according to LSEG data. The CME FedWatch tool

shows easing is still seen beginning at the September

meeting.

At 12:08 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 13.71 points, or 0.04%, at 38,602.87, the S&P 500

was up 10.43 points, or 0.19%, at 5,442.03, and the Nasdaq

Composite was up 26.09 points, or 0.15%, at 17,714.97.

Autodesk ( ADSK ) jumped 5.6% after a report that activist

investor Starboard Value had bought a roughly $500 million stake

in the software maker.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.44-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a

1.73-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 24 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows,

while the Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and 168 new lows.