Stock market today: Dow surges 462 points as stocks rally after jumbo Fed rate cut
Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell
US stocks soared on Thursday in a late reaction to the Federal Reserve’s jumbo interest rate cut.
On Wednesday, the Fed issued its first interest rate cut since 2020, cutting its benchmark rate by 50 basis points. Directly after the announcement, major indexes surged before paring those gains during Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference.
Now, it seems investors are reacting positively to the news, with major indexes up across the board. The Dow climbed 500 points shortly after the opening bell, while the Nasdaq jumped 2.4% and the S&P 500 gained 1.5% to hit fresh record highs.
Official’ projections show the central bank will cut another 50 basis points this year and 100 basis points in 2025, though some see steeper cuts ahead still. Bank of America analysts said after the meeting that they see 75 basis points of cuts in the fourth quarter and 125 basis points next year.
“The greater urgency suggested by today’s 50bp cut and the acceleration in the pace of cuts that most participants projected for 2025 makes a longer series of consecutive cuts the most likely path, in our view,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a Wednesday note.
In his press conference, Powell noted that the Fed sees the economy as being in a good place and unemployment is still relatively low despite a slow but steady rise in 2024. He said the central bank sees the jobless rate climbing to 4.4% by the end of the year, from last month’s 4.2%>
Weekly jobless claims data on Thursday reinforced the Fed’s message of a strong labor market. Claims from last week ticked down 12,000 to 219,000, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.
That fall marks the biggest change in jobless claims in over a month.
“The labor market is actually in solid condition. And our intention with our policy move today is to keep it there,” Powell said in his remarks following the FOMC meeting.
Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 5,705.47, up 1.55%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 41,965.94, up 1.12% (+462.84 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 17,994.09, up 2.4%
Here’s what else is going on today:
- A lone dissenting vote on the Fed’s rate cut marks the first split by a central bank governor in two decades.
- The SEC wants to make trading stocks cheaper for the average investor.
- Gen Z’s love of discount stores could send these three retail stocks soaring as much as 18%, Bank of America says.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- Oil futures rose. WTI crude increased 1% to $71.65 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 1% to $74.42 a barrel.
- Gold was up almost 1% to $2,566 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield rose six basis points to 3.747%.
- Bitcoin rose 0.31% to $57,745.72
