US equity markets advanced amid light trading volume to conclude a holiday-shortened week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq snaping five-session losing streaks - Dow rose +340-points or +0.80%, ending a run of four consecutive session declines. Nvidia Corp rallied +4.45% to be the leading performer in the 30-stock index ahead of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang delivering a keynote speech at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas tonight AEST which is expected to highlight how Nvidia's semiconductors are powering some of the most advanced products being shown off at the conference. Microsoft Corp (up +1.14%) announced that it would spend US$80B on artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled data centres in fiscal 2025. Apple Inc (down -0.20%) retreated for a fifth straight session, on the cusp of becoming the first company ever to surpass US$4 trillion in market capitalization a week earlier. Apple has kicked off the new year by offering iPhone discounts from 4 January to 7 January in China, according to the company’s website in the country.
