Wall Street notched another set of record closes on Thursday, a day after the US Federal Reserve trimmed rates by 25 basis points and signalled more cuts are on the table as the jobs market cools.
Chip stocks led the charge.
Intel rocketed 22.8% — its biggest one-day gain since October 1987 — after Nvidia said it would invest $US5 billion in the struggling chipmaker. Nvidia rebounded 3.5%, clawing back losses linked to reports Chinese tech firms could curb purchases of its chips.
Those moves lifted the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index 3.6%, helped the tech-heavy Nasdaq higher and pushed the S&P 500’s tech sector up 1.36%. Seven of the S&P’s 11 sectors advanced, while consumer staples and consumer discretionary lagged.
Small caps joined the party: the Russell 2000 closed at a record 2,466, with investors betting a lower-rate environment will give domestically focused companies a leg-up.
The Dow Jones rose 0.27% to 46,142 points, the S&P 500 gained half a per cent to 6,631 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished the day almost 1% higher at 22,470 points.
Traders are now pricing roughly 44.2 basis points of additional cuts by the end of 2025, according to LSEG data — a backdrop that keeps the recent AI-driven rally well supported.
– with reporting from Reuters