Wednesday’s early trade: Stocks up as Fed officials soothe inflation worries

NEW YORK: US stocks rose marginally on Wednesday after remarks from Federal Reserve officials helped ease worries about higher inflation, while a recent dip in bond yields supported tech-related stocks.

Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc added between 0.2% and 0.5%, as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at more than two-week lows of 1.552%.

Higher yields pressure valuations for tech and other growth stocks, whose future cash flows are discounted at higher rates.

Technology and consumer discretionary, among the worst performing S&P sectors this month, provided the biggest support to the benchmark S&P 500 on Wednesday.

At 11:33 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26.54 points, or 0.08%, at 34,339.00 and the S&P 500 was up 5.61 points, or 0.13%, at 4,193.74. The Nasdaq Composite was up 54.62 points, or 0.40%, at 13,711.79.

Trading volumes could dwindle heading into the Memorial Day long weekend, which could aggregate price moves.

Cryptocurrency-related stocks including those in Riot Blockchain and Marathon Patent Group rose 9.7% and 10.4% as bitcoin briefly climbed back above $40,000 for the first time this week.