While you were sleeping: Wall Street hits records

Wall Street advanced, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average sauntering to an intraday record as investors found value in Microsoft, Intel and Cisco.

Shares of Microsoft, last up 3.7 percent, Intel, last up 3.4 percent, and Cisco, last up 2.3 percent, propelled the Dow to a fresh intraday high of 14,716.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index followed suit, touching a record 1573.89.

"As we go into earnings season, it's going to be very interesting and important to see exactly whether or not this resiliency is sustained and ultimately supported by what companies report," Mark Freeman, chief investment officer at Westwood Holdings Group in Dallas, told Bloomberg News.

In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.67 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.67 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.78 percent.

Shares of Alcoa edged 0.12 percent lower. While the aluminum producer posted earnings that beat expectations after yesterday's closing bell, revenue fell short.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech late yesterday afternoon that economic conditions "are clearly still far from where we would all like them to be", a sign that the US central bank will continue its efforts to bolster growth.

The minutes of the latest FOMC meeting are scheduled for release tomorrow and the focus will be on any indication that the resolve among policymakers to keep buying assets is fraying. The Fed currently has a monthly asset purchase target of $US85 billion.

Shares of department-store chain JC Penney sank, last down 11.7 percent, after investors were unimpressed with the decision by the company's board to oust chief executive Ron Johnson and replace him with his predecessor, Myron Ullman.

"It was the wrong thing for the board to do to get rid of Johnson here. With the board firing Johnson now, at this stage in the game, they should tender their own resignation as well," Brian McGough, managing director and head of the retail group at research firm Hedgeye Risk Management, told Reuters.

Mr Johnson has been trying to revamp JC Penney, an effort that so far has failed to show any signs of turning around the company.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index advanced 0.2 percent from the previous close. Benchmark stock indexes in Paris, Frankfurt and London rose as well, gaining 0.1 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

China's consumer inflation eased in March, bolstering the case for additional stimulus measures to help fuel the pace of growth in the world's second-largest economy.

"Lower inflation will greatly ease investors' concerns that the policymakers would begin to tighten monetary conditions," Haibin Zhu, chief China economist at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, told Reuters.

(BusinessDesk)