*

Crypto-related stocks drop as bitcoin falls

*

Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares rebound, chip sector pares losses

*

Indexes: Dow up 0.56%, S&P up 0.40%, Nasdaq down 0.34%

(Updated prices at 02:24 ET/ 1824 GMT)

By Sinéad Carew and Bansari Mayur Kamdar

March 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street's major indexes gained

ground on Tuesday with chip stocks paring earlier losses as

Nvidia ( NVDA ) erased losses and investors looked ahead to the Federal

Reserve's policy meeting conclusion on Wednesday for clues on

interest rate policy.

Shares in chip maker Nvidia ( NVDA ) rebounded from earlier

losses, last trading up 1.7%, after it revealed pricing and

shipment plans for its hotly anticipated Blackwell B200 chip

artificial intelligence chip, which it says is up to 30 times

faster than its current chips.

After Nvidia's ( NVDA ) announcement late on Monday, rivals such as

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Intel ( INTC ) lost ground.

The high-flying Philadelphia Semiconductor index pared

losses after hitting its lowest point since Feb. 29 but was

still down 0.6%.

Investors were also preparing a day ahead of the Fed's

policy update, including a press conference from Chair Jerome

Powell. Robust inflation data has pulled back bets for the first

rate cut in June to about 59.6% from about 69% at the start of

last week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

"There's optimism that the Fed's not going to surprise

us a lot on Wednesday," said Gene Goldman, chief investment

officer at Cetera Investment Management. "We think three cuts

are still on the table."

But, still he sees Powell reminding the market that he is

cautious about inflation and that policy will depend on economic

data and expects the central bank to update its inflation and

economic growth projections.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average outpaced its Wall

Street peers, supported by gains in McDonald's, Home

Depot ( HD ) and Apple Inc. ( AAPL )

At 02:24 p.m. the Dow was up 217.83 points, or 0.56%, at

39,008.45 while the S&P 500 gained 20.81 points, or

0.40%, to 5,170.23 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed

55.97 points, or 0.34%, to 16,159.42.

Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 industry sectors were advancing

with energy leading gains as oil prices rose.

Communications services was the biggest decliner

with Meta Platforms ( META ) among its biggest losers.

All three major stock indexes had finished higher in the

previous session, with the Nasdaq bouncing back from two

successive small weekly losses as growth stocks such as Alphabet

and Tesla boosted the tech-heavy index.

Among other movers, crypto-exchange operator Coinbase Global ( COIN )

and miners Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) and Marathon Digital

Holdings ( MARA ) shed between 2.5% and 3.7%, tracking the sharp

slide in bitcoin.

MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) shares were down more than 7% after

the company announced it had completed a $603.75 million

convertible debt offering - its second in a week - to fund

bitcoin purchases.

AI server maker Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) was down 9%

after announcing that it will sell 2 million shares that could

fetch about $2 billion.

Spire Global ( SPIR ) jumped 34.6% after it announced a

collaboration with Nvidia ( NVDA ) for AI-driven weather prediction.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.23-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE which showed 227 new highs and 48 new lows.

On the Nasdaq 2,558 stocks rose and 1,596 fell as advancing

issues outnumbered decliners by about a 1.6-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 44 new 52-week highs and one new low

while the Nasdaq recorded 65 new highs and 115 new lows.