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Tech-fuelled rally pauses on Wall Street

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Treasury yields stay subdued ahead of Powell

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Gold hits a fresh high

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Dollar stays steady against major peers

By Isla Binnie and Canan Sevgili

NEW YORK/LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) -

Wall Street opened mixed on Tuesday after riding artificial

intelligence euphoria to record highs, while U.S. Treasury

yields were almost unflappable and gold soared ahead of planned

remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retrenched slightly,

falling 0.31% after the tech sector pushed indexes to record

highs on Monday for the third straight session.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) weighed, slipping 2.2% and

2.3% respectively.

Blue-chip indexes were mixed. By 10:45 a.m. the Dow Jones

Industrial Average rose 0.43%, while the S&P 500

fell 0.07%.

The moves in Nvidia ( NVDA ) came after the stock hit a record high

on Monday on news the chipmaker would invest up to $100 billion

in OpenAI, with the first data centre gear to be delivered in

the second half of 2026.

"It may not be an exaggeration to write that Nvidia ( NVDA ) - the

key supplier of capital goods for the AI investment cycle - is

currently carrying the weight of U.S. economic growth," said

George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche

Bank.

MSCI's gauge of stocks in 49 countries pared

earlier gains to be 0.09% up on the day.

Powell is due to speak at noon (1600 GMT) in his first

public remarks since the U.S. central bank cut rates last week.

Investors' antennas are up for any signals as to whether the Fed

will cut again in October.

Markets are pricing in a 92% chance of a 25 basis points cut

at the Fed's October meeting, and 8% odds of a pause.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell

0.6 bps to 4.139%, from 4.145% late on Monday. The 2-year note

yield, which typically moves in step with

expectations for Fed rate decisions, rose 0.4 bps to 3.605% from

3.601% late on Monday.

Gold basked in its safe-haven status to hit a new record

high, with the spot price last quoted at $3,772.89 an

ounce.

Chris Weston, head of research at broker Pepperstone, said

investors were hedging their exposure to stocks by buying gold.

RATE EXPECTATIONS SUPPORT EQUITIES, DOLLAR FIRM

Global equities have been supported by expectations of

further Fed rate cuts after it eased policy last week.

"The markets are sanguine in this 'everything rally,'

awaiting more evidence that further Fed easing will steer the

economy away from any hard landings," BNY head of markets macro

strategy Bob Savage said in a note.

Markets remain dovish despite mixed messaging from the Fed

itself.

Before the chair's speech, Vice Chair for Supervision

Michelle Bowman

largely dismissed inflation risks and said rates may need

to come down faster to support the labor market.

New Fed Governor Stephen Miran called for sharp rate cuts on

Monday, while three colleagues urged caution on inflation.

The U.S. dollar held steady against major peers, clocking

a 0.03% rise to 0.792 against the Swiss franc.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a

basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, was little

changed at 97.34.

Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel after a deal to

resume exports from Iraq's Kurdistan stalled. This reduced some

concerns about oversupply.