U.S. stocks rose Thursday, continuing the record-high run after the Federal Reserve stuck to its forecasts of at least three rate cuts this year.
At 13:25 ET (17:25 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 315 points or 0.8%, the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, and the NASDAQ Composite climbed 0.7%.
Post-Fed rally continues
Risk appetite has been boosted by the prospect of lower interest rates and a resilient U.S. economy after Fed officials maintained their forecasts for three rate cuts this year.
Goldman Sachs economists said in a Wednesday note they believe that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to delay rate cuts for an extended period and are planning the first reduction at the June meeting.
“We continue to expect cuts in June, September, and December, for a total of 3 cuts in 2024,” they added.
On the economic front, data continued to show strength in the labor market as new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, while the Phillip Fed index reading surprised to the upside, underscoring the recovery in manufacturing activity.
Additionally, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index showed unexpected growth in March.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) gets hit with DoJ antitrust lawsuit
Apple fell more than 3% after the U.S. Department of Justice and 16 states on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the tech giant, alleging that it is illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.
Apple in a statement vowed to “vigorously” defend against the lawsuit, believing it to be “wrong on the facts and the law.”
Micron jumped as chip stocks continue to soar; Astera adds to gains
Micron Technology stock soared 16%, climbing to a record high, after the chipmaker posted a surprise profit and forecast strong current-quarter revenue on soaring demand for its memory chips used in AI computing.
MU is not expected to peak “until gross margin peaks and with wafer capacity addition plans (outside of China) still very muted and HBM putting even more pressure on capacity, this seems unlikely until well into 2025 at the earliest,” the company said.
Astera Labs continued to rocker higher, rising 14% after the data center connectivity chipmaker’s stock market debut a day earlier.
Other chipmakers including NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA), Intel Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD) were also higher.
Darden Restaurants, Five Below falter on earnings stage
Darden Restaurants stock fell over 5% after the Olive Garden owner missed revenue expectations, as same-store sales shrank for the first time since the pandemic.
Five Below Inc. fell more than 14% after the discount retailer reported quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street analysts following as higher-than-expected shrink – a loss in inventory not due to sales – dented profit.
Reddit rallies on Stock market debut
Reddit surged on its stock market debut Thursday, rising more than 50% after opening up at $47, well above its IPO price of $35 a share.
The social media company, which generates the bulk of its revenue from advertising, is aiming to leverage the AI wave by licensing the data on its platform for third-party companies seeking to build large learning models.
