Big technology stocks drove a rally for US indexes Wednesday as Wall Street grew even more convinced long-sought cuts to interest rates will be arriving soon.
- The S&P 500 jumped 85.86 points, or 1.6%, to 5,522.30 for its best day in five months.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 99.46 points, or 0.2% to 40,842.79.
- The Nasdaq composite soared 451.98 points, or 2.6%, to to 17,599.40 .
Treasury yields eased in the bond market after the Federal Reserve gave the
clearest indication yet that it could begin lowering interest rates in September, the
AP reports.
Advanced Micro Devices rallied 4.4% after reporting better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, thanks in part to accelerating artificial-intelligence business. That helped drive Nvidia, the chip company that's become the poster child for Wall Street's frenzy around AI, up 12.9% a day after it lost 7%. Microsoft fell 1.1% despite reporting profit and revenue for the latest quarter late Tuesday that edged past analysts' expectations. Growth in its Azure cloud-computing business fell a bit shy of analysts' forecasts. Meta Platforms rose 2.5% as investors waited for its profit report, which arrived after trading closed for the day. Amazon and Apple will follow on Thursday.
Stronger-than-expected profit reports from companies outside the "Magnificent Seven" Big Tech stocks also helped lift the market on Wednesday. Match Group jumped 13.2% after saying its user trends for Tinder are stabilizing and reporting results for the latest quarter that roughly matched analysts' expectations. DuPont rose 4.1% after delivering better profit and revenue than expected, thanks in part to a recovery for the electronics business, and the chemical giant raised its financial forecasts for the full year. Boeing flew 2% higher after naming an industry veteran with a background in mechanical engineering as its next CEO.
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Some of Wednesday's strongest action was in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of benchmark US crude jumped about 4%. Hamas's top political leader Ismail Haniyeh died in a predawn assassination in the Iranian capital early Wednesday, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that could escalate conflict in the region and potential disrupt the flow of oil. (More stock market stories.)
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