Wall Street climbs for third day as dollar weakens

By Caroline Valetkevitch

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose for a third straight session on Wednesday as declines in the dollar lifted some commodity-related shares and boosted the outlook for multinationals.

The Dow was again trading above the psychologically key 18,000 level. It briefly rose above that level on Tuesday for the first time since April.

The day's gains put the S&P 500 within about 16 points of its all-time intraday high of 2134.72.

The S&P 500 materials index <.SPLRCM> climbed 0.8 percent following gains in copper and gold prices. Energy shares were <.SPNY> lower despite gains in oil prices.

Helping sentiment was a weaker dollar, which tends to benefit U.S. multinationals with a high percentage of overseas sales.

"The weaker dollar and strength in commodity names is certainly helping to fuel the market's strength," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. "Multinational companies are all benefiting and helping to drag the market higher."

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 57.02 points, or 0.32 percent, to 17,995.3, the S&P 500 gained 5.95 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,118.08 and the Nasdaq Composite added 11.44 points, or 0.23 percent, to 4,973.19.

Federal Reserve officials meet on June 14-15 and the central bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, which pushed the dollar lower for the fourth day in a row.

Despite surprisingly weak monthly jobs data last Friday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen boosted sentiment Monday by painting a mostly upbeat picture of the economy.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,007 to 982, for a 2.04-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,848 issues rose and 969 fell for a 1.91-to-1 ratio favouring advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 53 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 103 new highs and 22 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)