By Sinéad Carew and Amruta Khandekar
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Nov 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's three major U.S. stock averages advanced on Monday with Nasdaq leading gains as heavyweight Microsoft rallied after it hired prominent artificial intelligence executives, and lower Treasury yields also provided some support.
The S&P 500 information technology sub-index (.SPLRCT), up 1.6%, was the top gainer among the S&P 500's 11 major sectors, getting its biggest boost from Microsoft's shares (MSFT.O) which touched a record high and were last up 2%.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Sam Altman, who headed OpenAI until he was ousted late last week, was set to join Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. Microsoft will also take on Greg Brockman, another OpenAI cofounder, as well as other researchers.
The news set a positive tone for the technology sector, which was also lifted by other mega cap stocks, including Apple (AAPL.O) and Nvidia (NVDA.O).
Investors cheered a better-than-expected earnings season and the ongoing trend of falling Treasury yields, said Bruce Zaro, managing director at Granite Wealth Management in Providence, Rhode Island.
"The market likes what it sees in the behaving bond market. It likes what it sees in earnings reports and it's in the holiday mood," said Zaro, noting that investors may be preparing for a rally which often comes with the year-end holiday season.
While trading volume is often thin ahead of Thursday's U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, investors will...