US equity markets advanced, erasing earlier declines and lifting the Dow and S&P 500 to fresh record peaks as investors shrugged off news of a Department of Justice (DoJ) probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell - Dow added +86-points or +0.17% to 49,590.20 . Walmart Inc (up +3.01%) was the leading component in the 30-stock index overnight following news that it would be joining the Nasdaq 100 index beginning 20 January, replacing AstraZeneca Plc (down -1.07%). The move comes about a month after Walmart left the New York Stock Exchange for the Nasdaq. The world’s largest retailer also announced it would be partnering with Google's Gemini AI to help shoppers find and buy items, similar to a partnership made in October with OpenAI's ChatGPT.