Wall Street rises, with tech in the lead again

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped and indexes hit record highs on Tuesday, led by gains in this year's top-performing technology sector.

The S&P technology index <.SPLRCT> rose 1.1 percent, helped by Apple . The index has risen 38.5 percent this year, by far more than any other sector. The S&P 500 is up 16.1 percent for the year so far.

Healthcare shares were boosted by bullish results from medical device maker Medtronic , whose shares rose 5.2 percent after the company reported better-than-expected results and backed its full-year forecast.

With the third-quarter earnings season winding down and no major economic data in sight, trading activity is expected to slow ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

"Tech has been by far and away the leader, and that continues to be the case both domestically and internationally," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 167.86 points, or 0.72 percent, to 23,598.19, the S&P 500 gained 17.49 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,599.63 and the Nasdaq Composite added 68.58 points, or 1.01 percent, to 6,859.29.

Shares of Urban Outfitters gained 3.8 percent while Hormel Foods was up 3.1 percent. Both reported quarterly results.

Signet Jewelers tanked 30 percent after reporting a surprise quarterly loss, pulling down Tiffany 0.5 percent.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.24-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.10-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

(Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and James Dalgleish)