New York stocks opened higher on August 19 and finished with gains across all three major indexes. According to Sina Finance, the move came as the U.S. Treasury expanded its long-dated bond buyback program, long-term U.S. Treasury yields eased, and several large retailers reported better-than-expected results.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 119.65 points, or 0.22%, to 53,463.05. The S&P 500 gained 16.22 points, or 0.21%, to 7,707.98, while the Nasdaq Composite added 41.379 points, or 0.16%, to 26,331.09.

The U.S. Treasury said on August 19 that it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for long-dated Treasuries. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell 6 basis points to 4.65%, and the 30-year yield dropped 8.9 basis points to 5.195%.

Among individual stocks, Moderna and Merck rose sharply after positive clinical trial results for their personalized mRNA cancer treatment. Moderna jumped 176.97%, and Merck gained 12.60%. Marvell Technology climbed 9.85% after announcing expanded cooperation with Alphabet on custom AI chips related to Google's tensor processing units.

Target rose 4.28% after reporting second-quarter revenue of $26.54 billion and earnings per share of $4.11, both above market expectations. Lowe's gained 2.02% after posting second-quarter earnings per share of $4.27, while revenue of $25.96 billion missed estimates and the company cut its full-year outlook. Home Depot also rose 2.02%.