Wall Street today: Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s interest rate cut remarks helped extend the rally picked by by US stocks on July 31, as the equity market scored its best Federal Reserve day in two years. Wall Street cheered the dovish commentary by the US central bank, even as its rally was initially triggered by tech and semiconductor companies such as Nvidia, Meta, Apple, and others.
The S&P 500 jumped 1.6 per cent for its best day since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 99 points or 0.2 per cent. Major US indices spent almost all day in positive territory, hitting peaks during Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference before edging down a bit.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index led major indices, winning 2.6 per cent to finish at 17,599.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2 per cent to 40,842.79, while the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1.6 per cent to 5,522.29.
Equities staged a powerful rebound, with the Nasdaq 100 up 3%. Nvidia Corp. surged 13% — adding a record $329 billion in value — after a bullish analyst call. In late trading, Meta Platforms Inc. soared on a sales beat. Qualcomm Inc., the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave a strong revenue forecast. Treasury yields slipped alongside the dollar.
Canada’s main stock index climbed to a record high on Wednesday, helped by gains for resource, technology and high dividend pay stocks, as the Federal Reserve signaled it could begin cutting interest rates in the coming months.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 286.14 points, or 1.3%, at 23,110.81, eclipsing the all-time closing high it set on July 16. For the month, the index was up 5.65%, its biggest monthly advance since November.
