Even though the big bad speech isn’t until Friday, investors obviously decided today that things were not going to be so bleak after all and triggered another substantial rally with 3-digit gains across the Dow and Nasdaq.  This can be seen as either very rational or very irrational as the big trigger was a bad Q2 report from Nvidia which, for whatever reason, investors chose to interpret that the giant tech company had hit bottom and there were bright days ahead. Nvidia actually jumped 4% on the bad news and took the entire tech index with it as Apple, Microsoft and Google all jumped too.  There was also good news in a report today that showed the economy contracting lesser in Q2 than previously thought. The S&P is now down only 12% for the year vs 13% yesterday (vs minus 22% in June). Volume remains thin at 9.3 billion. 

Thu  August 25, 2022  4:21 PM

Wall Street ends sharply up, fueled by Nvidia and Amazon

By Noel Randewich and Bansari Mayur Kamdar

DJ: 32,969.23  +59.64        NAS: 12,431.53  +50.23       S&P: 4,140.77  +12.04     8/24

DJ: 33,291.78  +322.55      NAS: 12,639.27  +207.74     S&P: 4,199.12  +58.35     8/25

Aug 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street ended sharply higher on Thursday, lifted by gains in Nvidia and other technology-related stocks as investors focused on the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole conference for clues about the central bank's policy outlook.  Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to give a speech on Friday that investors will dissect for indications of how aggressively the Fed may move to raise interest rates as it battles decades-high inflation.  "We're in a period of time between the end of the second-quarter earnings season and meaningful additional data from the Federal Reserve. Markets are churning a bit with a reasonably low level of volatility," said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.  The yield on the closely watched 10-year Treasury note faded after recently hitting a two-month high. Declining interest rates tend to benefit technology stocks trading at high valuations.  "Lower interest rates have certainly put some support underneath some of the more growth-oriented sectors," Northey said.

Nvidia (NVDA.O) jumped 4% after the graphics chipmaker gave a weaker-than-expected quarterly forecast that many investors viewed as signaling the worst of a sales downturn may be over. That drove a rally in the Philadelphia semiconductor index (.SOX). read more  Apple (AAPL.O) and Microsoft rose more than 1%, while Amazon (AMZN.O) and Google-owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O) added more than 2%, with all four companies making substantial contributions to the Nasdaq's increase.  All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by materials (.SPLRCM), up 2.26%, followed by a 2.06% gain in communication services (.SPLRCL). 

 

Data earlier in the day showed the U.S. economy contracted less than initially thought in the second quarter, dispelling some fears that a recession was underway. read more  Traders see a slightly greater likelihood of a third 75-basis-point interest hike from the Fed at its policy meeting next month, compared with a 50-basis-point increase. FEDWATCH  Fed officials on Thursday were noncommittal about the size of the interest rate increase they plan to approve at their Sept. 20-21 meeting, but they continued hammering the point that rates will rise and stay high until such high rates of inflation have been squeezed from the economy. read more 

 

Electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) slid 0.35% after a 3-for-1 stock split came into effect. read more

The S&P 500 climbed 1.41% to end the session at 4,199.12 points.  The Nasdaq gained 1.67% to 12,639.27 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.98% to 33,291.78 points.  Following Thursday's rally, the S&P 500 remains down about 12% in 2022, while the Nasdaq is down about 19%.

Citigroup Inc climbed 2.1% after saying it plans to close its consumer and commercial banking businesses in Russia starting this quarter. read more  Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) fell 3.4% after it cut its annual forecasts over "measured" spending from clients and a hit from a stronger dollar. read more

Additional chipmakers rallying on Thursday included Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), up 4.8%, and Broadcom (AVGO.O), which gained 3.6%. 

 

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) by a 13.4-to-one ratio.  The S&P 500 posted 4 new highs and 29 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 54 new highs and 70 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 9.3 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 10.8 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.