Wednesday, July 31, 2024

S&P 500, Nasdaq boosted by chip rally, Fed rate cut signals

S&P 500, Nasdaq boosted by chip rally, Fed rate cut signals

By Chibuike Oguh

Wed July 31, 2024 5:53 PM

What Powell actually said today, “Policymakers discussed the case for cutting rates, but a strong majority agreed that now was not the appropriate time.”  What the market heard, “Listening to him speak, it’s clear that they’re all locked and loaded for a September rate cut.”  As they say, perception is everything and what the market perceived of today’s Fed comments shot the tech indexes through the roof, with its biggest daily percentage gain since February. 

(The Dow less so though even the Dow was up some 450 points as late as 3 pm, before crashing down to a fraction of that at close. No explanation for why the Dow came down so harshly in the final hour while tech remained consistently up all day.) I’m sure it also helped that U.S. payrolls today increased far less than expected indicating an easing in the labor market and bolstering the case for inflation lowering. For the month, tech indexes gained about ½% while the Dow gained 4.4, reflecting the rotation from tech to industrials that took place during July. Volume was right in line with the 4-week average at 13.3 billion. 

DJ: 40,743.66  +203.73      NAS: 17,147.42  -222.78      S&P: 5,436.42  -27.12   7/30

DJ: 40,842.79  +99.46        NAS: 17,599.40  +451.98     S&P: 5,522.30  +85.86  7/31

Wed 7-31-24 5:53 pm S&P 500, Nasdaq boosted by chip rally, Fed rate cut signals | Reuters  


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