Stocks climbed Thursday and added to the previous session’s gains, powering the major averages to new record closing levels.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 269.24 points, or 0.68%, to close at 39,781.37. The S&P 500 advanced 0.32% to end at 5,241.53, while the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.20% to finish at 16,401.84.
“People have faith in the Fed right now, and that cuts are coming,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “We are in a good place, and the market believes in the smooth landing narrative. Whatever the Fed is saying continues to be the music to the ears of the market.”
Micron Technology jumped 14% on strong earnings and notched its best day since December 2011. The news lifted the semiconductor sector, with Nvidia and Marvell Technology adding more than 1% each. Taiwan Semiconductor and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) surged about 2% each, while Broadcom jumped 5.6%.
Some megacap tech stocks that led the recent rally also contributed to the session’s gains, with Microsoft adding nearly 1%. Social media company Reddit surged more than 48% in its market debut. Apple bucked the broad uptrend, slumping 4% after the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker.
Industrial stocks also outperformed, boosting their respective S&P sector by 1%. Stanley Black & Decker, Pentair and Rockwell Automation were among the notable gainers, jumping about 3% each.
Thursday’s moves follow a winning day on Wall Street that sent the three major indexes to new closing highs, with the S&P 500 breaking above 5,200 for the first time.
Those gains came as the Federal Reserve reiterated expectations for three interest rate cuts this year and kept borrowing costs unchanged at the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting.
While the central bank failed to elaborate on the timing of cuts, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said during a press conference Wednesday that he expects rates to ease as long as the inflation data continues…
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