US stocks extended their rally on Tuesday, kicking off the final week of 2023 with expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates as soon as March.

All three major US stock indexes rose in light trading a day after the Christmas holiday, with the S&P 500 touching its highest intraday level since January 2022. All three are on track for monthly, quarterly and annual gains.

Interest rate sensitive megacap stocks and chip shares led the upward momentum.

On Friday, the three indexes notched their eighth straight weekly gains – their longest weekly winning streaks in years – as economic data indicated inflation is easing down closer to the Fed's average annual 2 percent target.

"The momentum stays towards the upside," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York, noting however that a strong rally was unlikely in light trading.

"We had a good inflation number on Friday. If inflation continues to move down in January and February, there's a good chance that the Fed may cut (rates) earlier than anticipated."

The S&P 500 is on track to post its biggest quarterly gain in three years, and is within 0.5 percent of its all-time closing high reached in January 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.43 percent, to 37,545, the S&P 500 gained 0.42 percent, to 4,775 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.54 percent, to 15,075.

Shares of Manchester United rose 3.4 percent after billionaire Jim Ratcliffe struck a long-awaited deal to buy a 25 percent stake in the soccer club at US$33 per share.

Gracell Biotechnologies surged 60.3 percent after AstraZeneca said it will buy the China-based firm for up to US$1.2 billion.

Intel rose 5.2 percent following the Israeli government's agreement to endow a US$3.2 billion grant for a US$25 billion plant the chipmaker plans to build in southern Israel. (Reuters)