US equity markets logged back-to- back gains ahead of the release of key inflation figures tonight AEST - Dow rose +141-points or +0.43%. Boeing Co rose +1.48%, with Reuters reporting that the company’s CEO of commercial airplanes Stan Deal said that the 737 MAX production rate would go higher “soon.” The broader S&P500 climbed +0.57%, with Real Estate (up +1.22%) and Information Technology (+1.14%) leading ten of the eleven primary sectors higher. Financials (down -0.37%) was the only primary sector to settle in the red. The Nasdaq rallied +0.72% to 12,013.47, touching its highest intra-session level since 15 February (12,044.79). The technology-centric index is up +17.6% from its most recent low hit on 28 December. The level needed to enter a new bull market is 12,255.95, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Chip stocks continued to perform strongly. The more concentrated Nasdaq-100 index (up +0.91%) which tracks the top 100 non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, exited a bear market on Wednesday (29 March), and is currently up +21.4% from its 28 December 28 closing low, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Advanced Micro Devices Inc rose +1.86%, Intel Corp +1.81% and NVIDIA Corp +1.48%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 eased -0.18%.