S&P 500 notches record-high close as rate-hike worries ease

VIDEO SHOWS: N/ASTORY: Wall Street's main indexes ended higher on Thursday, with the Dow ticking up marginally, the S&P 500 adding nearly two-thirds of a percent to close at a record high, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbing more than eight-tenths of a percent.Several chip stocks led the way, with shares of Sandisk surging nearly 14% after the memory chip maker said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-teens percentage rate from fiscal years 2028 to 2030, encouraged by strong demand amid rapid AI infrastructure buildout. On the flip side, shares of Cisco fell more than 8% despite the AI infrastructure company a day earlier forecasting fiscal 2027 revenue above Wall Street expectations.Eric Diton is president and managing director of The Wealth Alliance."Sandisk up double digits with just great numbers, great expectations for future revenue for margins, which by the way is what took Cisco down today. Cisco beat on earnings, beat on revenue, but the street focused on a little over a 2% drop in margin, and they beat up the stock pretty well. But generally speaking, the Nasdaq's having a great day, up roughly three quarters of a percent, led by the chips."Elsewhere in the market, shares of Netflix climbed more than 5% after billionaire investor Bill Ackman unveiled a new holding in the streaming company as part of Pershing Square's biggest portfolio overhaul in years.And shares of Tapestry plunged more than 16% after the Coach owner forecast muted annual revenue growth.Meanwhile, fresh data showed U.S. producer prices were unchanged in July, while the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased moderately last week, pointing to a stable jobs market.Traders are pricing in a more than 60% chance that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at its meeting next month, according to CME's FedWatch tool.