Dow, S&P 500 Rally To New Record Highs As Traders Digest Rate Cut

Stocks have moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday, with the major averages more than offsetting the losses posted in the previous session. With the strong upward move, the Dow and the S&P 500 have reached new record intraday highs.

Currently, the major averages are off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Dow is up 406.78 points or 1.0 percent at 41,909.88, the Nasdaq is up 443.22 points or 2.5 percent at 18,016.52 and the S&P 500 is up 89.99 points or 1.6 percent at 5,708.25.

The rally on Wall Street comes as traders continue to digest the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to slash interest rates by half a percentage point.

With the Fed saying officials have gained greater confidence inflation is moving sustainably toward its 2 percent target, the central bank lowered the target range for the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.75 to 5.00 percent.

The Fed was almost universally expected to cut rates for the first time since March 2020, but there was some debate over whether it would lower rates by 25 or 50 basis points.

Fed officials also forecast continued rate cuts over the coming months and into next year, generating optimism the central bank will be able to engineer a soft landing for the economy.

Adding to the positive sentiment, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a nearly four-month low in the week ended September 14th.

The report said initial jobless claims slid to 219,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 231,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 230,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decline, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 216,000 in the week ended May 18th.

Sector News

Semiconductor stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside on the day, resulting in a 3.9 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Networking, computer hardware and software stocks are also seeing considerable strength, contributing to the surge by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Significant strength is also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Steel Index.

Banking, oil service and transportation stocks are also seeing notable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index surged by 2.1 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.7 percent.

The major European markets have also shown strong moves to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has jumped by 2.0 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 1.5 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.8 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are extending the pullback seen over the two previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 4.1 basis points at 3.728 percent.