(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)*Broadcom falls on report of Apple's plan to replace chip*Indexes up: Dow 0.08%, S&P 0.07%, Nasdaq 0.16%Jan 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on
Tuesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell steered clear of
commenting on the monetary policy outlook, with focus turning to
an upcoming inflation reading scheduled for later this week.Powell's remarks, which offered no clues on the Fed's plans
for future tightening, came as a major relief after two other
policymakers on Monday injected a note of caution over the
interest rate outlook."He (Powell) hasn't disrupted the market in any way and the
fact that he stresses the need for political independence while
tackling inflation, that's a definite positive for the markets,"
said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities, New York.Traders held on to bets of a 25-basis point rate hike at the
U.S. central bank's upcoming policy meeting in February, with
the terminal rate seen slightly below 5% by June.Markets have been hoping that the Fed could soon signal an
end to its rate hiking cycle following recent signs of a
slowdown in the U.S. economy, even as policymakers reiterate the
central bank's priority to bring inflation under control."The Fed has a little bit more tightening to do," said David
Russell, vice president of market intelligence at TradeStation
Group, adding that Thursday's inflation report will be crucial
in shaping interest rate expectations.The much-awaited consumer prices index (CPI) report from the
U.S. Labor Department is expected to show some moderation in
year-on-year prices in December.The Fed's aggressive monetary policy tightening to curb
decades-high inflation hammered U.S. equities in 2022, with the
three main indexes logging their steepest annual declines since
2008.Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said on Tuesday the U.S.
central bank will have to raise interest rates further to combat
high inflation.Among major S&P 500 sectors, retailers were up 0.8%
and in the lead, while consumer discretionary stocks
rose 0.2%, with Amazon.com Inc driving gains in both
the subindexes.Healthcare stocks rose 0.5% and were also a major
boost to the benchmark S&P 500 index.At 11:59 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
was up 28.41 points, or 0.08%, at 33,546.06, the S&P 500
was up 2.71 points, or 0.07%, at 3,894.80, and the Nasdaq
Composite was up 17.25 points, or 0.16%, at 10,652.90.Broadcom Inc fell 3.4% on a report that Apple Inc
plans to replace a Broadcom chip from its devices with
an in-house design in 2025.Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.17-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.62-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 20 new lows.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas, Amruta Khandekar and Johann M
Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Shounak
Dasgupta)