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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks chromatic on Tuesday after a planned integration of digit major semiconductor companies and an updating of a key Nasdaq index, but reddened trading intensity advisable the feat haw not be sustainable.

Minutes of the terminal agent Reserve gathering showed whatever Fed officials believed the U.S. bicentric bank should alter conditions before year-end. Stock mart state was muted.

Trading intensity continued to be light. By New afternoon trade, just 4.58 1000000000 shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq.

"The intensity is a clew that there is little sentence from sellers in this market. But those wishing for more intensity should be careful what they wish for since a rebound in trading intensity haw become with the convey of volatility, kinda than the steady gains we hit seen since terminal summer," said Jeff Kleintop, honcho mart strategist for LPL Financial in Boston.

A rebalancing of the Nasdaq 100 (.NDX), which takes effect on May 2, spurred traders to buy companies with accumulated weightings, including Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Intel Corp (INTC.O) and Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O), every of which chromatic more than 1 proportionality and were the Dow's crowning threesome percentage gainers.

Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) coefficient was slashed, though it remains the large component. The hit was downbound 0.7 proportionality at $338.80 after earlier falling as much as 1.5 percent.

Texas Instruments (TXN.N) New weekday offered to buy National Semiconductor (NSM.N) in a deal worth $6.5 billion, a premium of 78 percent. National Semi shares jumped 71.6 proportionality to $24.15. Texas Instruments added 1.9 proportionality to $34.74.

"Tech stocks are directive this bounteous gesture of integration and acquisition activity, which people are trying to function themselves ahead of and which I wait to continue," said saint Swanson, honcho assets strategist at Boston-based MFS Investment Management, which oversees about $200 billion.

The deal is the stylish in a progress of multibillion-dollar deals that hit helped pushed stocks higher in past weeks. The Dow closed on weekday at its maximal take since June 2008, though intensity was the minimal of the year.

"This is a powerful wheel that is environment the initiate for boost gains as we go into earnings season," actress said.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 13.44 points, or 0.11 percent, at 12,413.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 1.83 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,334.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 5.74 points, or 0.21 percent, at 2,794.93.

The S&P 500 chromatic above 1,333, a intimately watched take that is double the low it reached in the business crisis. It hasn't ended above that take since mid-February, and the past reddened intensity has upraised questions about the durability of the rally.

China's bicentric bank accumulated welfare rates on Tuesday for the fourth instance since October, raising suspicions that data next hebdomad haw show higher inflation than expected in March.

In the stylish snapshot of the U.S. economy, the Institute for Supply Management showed the vast U.S. services sector grew more tardily in March than it did in February.

KB Home (KBH.N) shares dropped 3.9 proportionality to $11.72 after it reported a first-quarter expiration that widened from the preceding year, perceive by a fall in net orders.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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