The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Nasdaq and S&P 500 rallied to record high closes on Wednesday, fuelled by gains in Nvidia and other Wall Street heavyweights ahead of inflation data and quarterly earnings reports due this week. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that S&P/TSX Composite Index also posted a solid advance. It was the Nasdaq's seventh straight record-high close and the S&P 500's sixth straight. The S&P 500 crossed 5,600 for the first time after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell stoked expectations for an interest-rate cut in September. Mr. Powell said in his second day of Congressional testimony that he was not ready to conclude that inflation was moving sustainably down to 2 per cent, although he expressed "some confidence of that." Nasdaq gained 1.18 per cent to 18,647.45 points, while the Dow gained 1.09 per cent to 39,721.36 points. Toronto closed up 307.73 points, or 1.4 per cent, at 22,350.23. Materials led sectoral gains, rising 2.2 per cent. They tracked spot gold prices, which rose amid market expectations for U.S. interest-rate cuts. Heavyweight energy shares rose 1.2 per cent, while the financial and consumer discretionary sectors also moved up.