US stocks soared higher again on Thursday as investors bet that the Federal Reserve’s current round of economically painful rate hikes might be over.
The Dow rose 565 points, or 1.7%. The S&P 500 was 1.9% higher and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.8%.
Both the S&P 500 and Dow are on track to notch their largest weekly gains this year and the Dow closed its best day since June.
Treasury yields, which topped 5% just last month, have also come down precipitously. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped by about 0.12% on Thursday to 4.66%.
Wall Street also celebrated on Wednesday after the Fed kept interest rates unchanged for the second time in a row and Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he was happy with the downward movement of inflation. The Dow gained more than 220 points.
That positive sentiment remained strong on Thursday, with 85.5% of investors betting that the Fed will keep rates the same at its next meeting in December, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
“The year-end rally continues as interest rates plummet,” said Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates on Thursday. “While earnings season wasn’t as good as it could have been, with lots of cuts in fourth-quarter estimates, the soft landing narrative is fully in charge, the seasonal rally is arriving right on queue, and the market is once again demonstrating its ability to shrug off what appears to be daunting geopolitical risks.”
New data on Thursday showed that prices were coming down and that the persistently strong labor market might be easing: Labor costs unexpectedly dropped by 0.8% last quarter, according to Labor Department data; and first-time claims for jobless benefits also increased for the second week in a row. There were 217,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week that ended on October 28, an increase of 5,000 claims from the prior week’s total, which was upwardly revised.
The market’s focus now turns to Friday’s jobs report, which is expected to show solid employment growth. Analysts predict 180,000 jobs were added to the economy in October, according to Refinitiv. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.8%.
In corporate news, investors are eagerly awaiting third-quarter results from Apple. The tech giant reports after the bell today. Shares of the company were up 2.1% ahead of the release.
Tech stocks pulled markets higher Thursday, with shares of Tesla up nearly 6.3% and shares of Nvidia up about 2.8%.
Shares of Starbucks, meanwhile, popped nearly 9.5% after the coffee chain beat earnings estimates and posted record revenue.
While all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 were trading higher on Thursday, there were some notable outliers. Shares of Meta were down by 0.3%. The Facebook-parent company announced this week that it would charge European users of Instagram and Facebook a fee for ad-free viewing beginning in November.
Shares of Airbnb were down 3.3% after the company beat on third-quarter revenue earnings but lowered its forward guidance.
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