Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com

S&P 500 REACHING FOR THE STARS

Wall Street's main indexes are higher early on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading gains, as investors cheer streaming giant Netflix's NFLX.O strong quarterly performance and President Donald Trump's multi-billion dollar support to bolster AI infrastructure.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence. The joint venture, called Stargate, plans to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.

On the back of Trump's announcement and Netflix's more than 10% rise, tech .SPLRCT and communication services .SPLRCL are posting the biggest gains among S&P 500 .SPX sectors.

The FANG index .NYFANG, which includes NFLX, is popping more than 2%. Chip stocks .SOX are also rallying more than 2%.

Banks .SPXBK, .KRX are on the losing side.

Meanwhile, at around 6,082, the SPX is reaching for its record highs. The benchmark index is now down less than 0.14% from its 6,090.27 December 6 record closing high and down less than 0.3% from its 6,099.97 December 6 record intraday high.

Here is a snapshot of where markets stood around 15 minutes into the trading day:

(Terence Gabriel)

*****

FOR WEDNESDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

PLAYING FTSE WITH THE DOW - CLICK HERE

DECIPHERING THE BOND MARKET'S UNUSUAL SELLOFF - CLICK HERE

WHY ITALIAN SMIDS WILL OUTPERFORM IN 2025 - CLICK HERE

TRUMP'S AI PLEDGE OUTWEIGHS TARIFF FEARS; STOXX AT RECORD - CLICK HERE

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES UP AS TRADERS DIGEST TRUMP COMMENTS - CLICK HERE

THEY DO KNOW STARGATE IS SCI-FI, RIGHT? - CLICK HERE

(Terence Gabriel is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)