Wall Street rolled to more records Thursday after mixed data on the economy cemented expectations for coming cuts to interest rates.
- The S&P 500 rose 55.43 points, or 0.8%, to 6,587.47 and set an all-time high for a third straight day.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 617.08 points, or 1.4%, to 46,108, closing above 46,000 for the first time.
- The Nasdaq composite rose 157.01 points, or 0.7%, to 22,043.07.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market following the reports on joblessness and inflation, as traders bet the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates for the first time this year at its meeting next week, the
AP reports.
One of Thursday's reports said more US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the number of layoffs could be rising. It's the latest discouraging signal on the job market, where hiring has slowed substantially. A report on inflation Thursday showed prices are continuing to rise faster for US households than the Fed hopes, but unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that it will cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its meeting next week. "Right now, inflation is a key subplot, but the labor market is still the main story," according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
On Wall Street, Centene helped lead the market with a jump of 9%. The health care company said its business results through August are tracking with the profit forecast it had earlier given for the year. That's more than analysts are forecasting. Opendoor Technologies soared 79.5% after the company, which helps people buy and sell homes online, said it hired Shopify's chief operating officer, Kaz Nejatian, as its CEO. It also announced a $40 million investment by one of its founders and an investment firm tied to another founder.
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Warner Bros. Discovery surged 28.8% following a report that Paramount Skydance is considering making an offer to buy the entertainment company. Paramount Skydance, which was formed by Skydance's purchase of Paramount in August, jumped 8.1%. Helping to keep the market's gain in check was Oracle, which fell 6.2%. But that gave back only a bit of its monster surge from the day before, when it soared nearly 36% for its best day since 1992 on excitement about multibillion dollar contracts won amid the frenzy around artificial intelligence technology. Tesla rose 6%, with Elon Musk reclaiming his title as world's richest person from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
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