The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq surged to fresh record highs Thursday as investors reacted to a dovish assessment on rate cuts from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, while prepping for another round of economic data later in the session.
The S&P 500 gained 1.03% to close at 5,157.36, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.51% to 16,273.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.34% to 38,791.35.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit record intraday highs as well.
Updated at 2:37 PM EST
Tech highs
The Nasdaq Composite hit a fresh intra-day high Thursday, rising to 16,309.02 points and extending it 2024 advance to around 10.3%.
Tech gains are also driving the S&P 500 higher into the close, with the benchmark last seen 54 points, or 1.07% higher at 5,159.34 points while the Dow gained a more modest 136 points, or 0.35%.
Some Names That Hit All-Time Highs Today at Some Point:
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) March 7, 2024
NVIDIA $NVDA
Costco $COST
WalMart $WMT
Taiwan Semi $TSM$META
T-Mobile $TMUS
JPMorgan $JPM
AmEx $AXP
Caterpillar $CAT
AutoZone $AZO
Colgate-Palmolive $CL
AbbVie $ABBV
Ameriprise $AMP
Lam Research $LRCX
Boston Scientific…
Updated at 11:47 AM EST
The bell tolls for TikTok?
Meta Platforms (META) shares jumped higher Thursday, rising 3.17%, while social media rival and messaging app maker Snap (SNAP) gained 3.2%, following the latest move by lawmakers on Capitol Hill to force TikTok owner Bytedance to divest its U.S. assets.
The House Committee and Energy and Commerce gave Bytedance six months to sell the division or face a ban on sales in U.S. app stores,
“At our hearing last year with the CEO of TikTok, we saw a company that was repeatedly caught lying about its relationship with ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party," said Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. "It confirmed our worst fears—that applications controlled by foreign adversaries, like TikTok, are exploiting and weaponizing American’s data and pose a clear national security threat to the United States."
Looks like TikTok is going on the offensive, asking its users to call members on the E&C committee to “stop a TikTok shutdown” https://t.co/WmW5ciF6Mt pic.twitter.com/5XzD8nNesa
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) March 7, 2024
Updated at 11:02 AM EST
More records
The S&P 500 hit a fresh intra-day all-time high of 5,155.37 points Thursday, setting up the chance for its 17th peak of the year, with the benchmark last up 0.9%, or 46 points, in late morning trading.
Tech Bubble 2.0? The S&P 500 just closed at record levels, yet only 1 out of 11 sectors made new highs today — Technology. pic.twitter.com/WlOojK2eDJ
— Guy With Finance (@GuyWithFinance) March 7, 2024
Updated at 10:46 AM EST
Kroger morsels
Kroger (KR) shares are trading at a two-year high Thursday after the grocery chain, which is attempting a $25 billion merger with Albertsons (ACI) , posted stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings and a solid sales outlook.
Kroger has been criticized for profiting from food price inflation, but its 2023 gross margin was around 22.7%, compared to 22.9% for the whole of the 2020 pandemic year.
Kroger said it sees 2024 rales rising by 1.75% this year, compared to $150 billion in 2023, with earnings in the region of $4.30 to $4.50 per share.
$KR leading the market - keep those grocery prices high and rake in profits. pic.twitter.com/TOcfJpjV9d
— Mike Zaccardi, CFA, CMT 🍖 (@MikeZaccardi) March 7, 2024
Updated at 10:10 AM EST
Solid start
The S&P 500 added around 35 points, or 0.7%, from last night's gain in the opening half hour of trading, with the Dow rising 0.4% despite pullbacks for JPMorgan (JPM) , Visa (V) and Amgen (AMGN) .
Nvidia NVDA hit a fresh record high of $909.99 each, and was last marked 2.15% higher at $906.05 each, helping the Nasdaq jump 127 points, or 0.67%.
Related: Analysts revamp Nvidia, Micron price targets as new business model grows
Updated at 9:07 AM EST
Mixed jobs
The Labor Department reported little-change in the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits last week, with the 217,000 tally largely matching the Street consensus forecast.
Challenger Gray's closely-tracked report of monthly job losses, however, noted that February layoffs were up 9% from last year to just under 85,000.
“As we navigate the start of 2024, we’re witnessing a persistent wave of layoffs," said CEO Andrew Challenger. "Businesses are aggressively slashing costs and embracing technological innovations, actions that are significantly reshaping staffing needs.”
Updated at 8:23 am EST
Dovish hold
The European Central Bank held its key interest rates unchanged Thursday in Frankfurt, but lowered its near-term inflation forecasts, suggesting rate cuts could come sometime later this spring.
The ECB's refinancing rate was kept at 4.5%, while its deposit rate stayed at 4%, as it stressed the need to "ensure that inflation returns to its 2% medium-term target in a timely manner."
However, its also trimmed its growth forecasts for the 20 EU member states that use the single currency to 0.6%, and said inflation would likely slow to 2.3% over the whole of this year.
We kept our interest rates unchanged at our latest meeting.
— European Central Bank (@ecb) March 7, 2024
See our monetary policy decisions https://t.co/V20tqnXeUB pic.twitter.com/zbzy1Dhowj
Check back for updates throughout the trading day
Stocks closed firmly higher Wednesday, with the S&P 500 gaining around 0.51%, following the first day of Powell's semiannual testimony to lawmakers on Capitol Hill where he suggested that rate cuts would likely begin later this year.
While signaling no change in the Fed's messaging, Powell nonetheless hinted that January's faster-than-expected inflation reading could have been an anomaly in an otherwise downward path. Powell added that he needs only "a bit more" information to find conviction in the idea that inflation is returning to the central bank's 2% target.
Paired with data showing solid, but by no means outsized, jobs gains, plus wage components that suggest job-changers are losing some of their pricing power, investors sold the U.S. dollar and bought longer-dated Treasury bonds in the wake of Powell's appearance before the House Financial Services Committee.
Benchmark 10-year notes were last marked at 4.1%, the lowest in nearly two months, while 2-year notes held at 4.546% in early New York trading.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.20% lower at 103.160, the lowest since February 1.
Gold prices, meanwhile, extended their recent run to an all-time high of $2,161.09 per ounce. The bullion is on its longest winning streak since November 2021.
Stocks on Wall Street are set for another positive session, with investors eyeing weekly jobless claims and fourth-quarter labor cost data at 8:30 am Eastern time, as well as earnings from Costco (COST) , Broadcom (AVGO) and Oracle (ORCL) after the closing bell.
Futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 6.5% for the year, are priced for a 12-point opening bell gain while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average suggest a 45-point move to the upside.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is looking at a 77-point gain thanks in part to solid premarket moves for chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA) , which may open above the $900 mark for the first time, and Intel (INTC) , which is reportedly in line for a $3.5 billion contract with the U.S. military.
In Europe, the regionwide Stoxx 600 was marked 0.33% higher, after hitting an all-time peak of 500.05 points earlier in the session, ahead of the European Central Bank's March policy meeting later this morning in Frankfurt.
Analysts expect the ECB to hold rates, including its benchmark deposit rate, unchanged while hinting at the first round of reductions later in the spring.
Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 slumped 1.25%. The yen had it biggest gain of the year following stronger-than-expected January wage data and suggestions from Bank of Japan officials that its negative rate strategies could be phased-out later in the year.
Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024
