By Noel Randewich
(Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Friday, with the S&P 500 index hitting a record intraday high for the seventh time this month as gains in technology heavyweights Alphabet and Amazon more than made up for losses in energy shares.
The benchmark index rose as much as 0.3 percent, touching an all-time high of 2,177.09, and was on track for its fifth straight month of gains.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet
Those stocks gave the biggest boost to the Nasdaq, while Alphabet contributed the most to the S&P 500's gain.
However, the Dow was dragged down by a 1.81 percent fall in Exxon
U.S. gross domestic product in the second quarter grew at a 1.2 percent rate, coming in below expectations for a rise of 2.6 percent and fuelling arguments the U.S. Federal Reserve may not need to raise interest rates anytime soon.
"Investors are still willing to play chicken with the Fed, thus the S&P 500 has hit a new intraday all-time high," said Sam Stovall, U.S. equity strategist at S&P Global Market Intelligence in New York.
At 2:38 pm, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 0.16 percent at 18,426.73 points and the S&P 500 <.SPX> had gained 0.14 percent to 2,173.15.
The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 0.1 percent to 5,160.08.
Seven of the 10 major S&P 500 indexes were higher, led by a 1.3 percent rise in the telecoms services index <.SPLRCL>.
Baidu
Health insurer Cigna
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.72-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.04-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 41 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 94 new highs and 34 new lows.
(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
