[ad_1]
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks broke out of a three-day lull Wednesday to rise to record highs.
The S&P 500 rose 44.91 points, or 0.9%, to 5,248.49. It was the index’s first gain since hitting a record high on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose $477.75, or 1.2%, to $39,760.08, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose $83.82, or 0.5%, to $16,399.52. Both ended up falling just short of my own records.
Merck rose 5% after federal regulators approved a treatment for adults for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare disease in which blood vessels in the lungs thicken and narrow.
Cintas, which provides workwear and office supplies, was another driving force behind the S&P 500 index. The company rose 8.2% after the company said its latest quarterly profit beat analysts’ expectations.
Meanwhile, Trump Media & Technology Group stock continued to soar, rising another 14.2%. The company that runs the loss-making Truth social platform has soared far beyond what critics say is reasonable as former President Donald Trump’s fans continue to boost its value.
Robinhood Markets rose 3.7% after announcing its first credit card and other new products for Gold members who pay a subscription fee.
The loser on Wall Street is Nvidia, which has slipped into the red for the second year in a row after posting a 91% gain for the year so far. The stock fell 2.5% as some investors may have booked their profits before the first quarter of this year’s results. Nvidia is one of the biggest winners in Wall Street’s frenzy over artificial intelligence.
GameStop fell 15% on year-over-year revenue declines, despite delivering a profit in its latest quarter. It was the original meme stock, predating Trump Media by years, and its price was often driven more by the sentiment of investors with less deep pockets than by traditional fundamentals like earnings and revenue.
A drop in U.S. Treasury yields shook things up on a day when there was little economic reporting in the bond market.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 4.19% from 4.23% late Tuesday.
The week’s bond market highlight may come on Friday, when the U.S. government releases its latest monthly update on U.S. consumer spending. This would include the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation when setting interest rates.
On this day, which is Good Friday, both the U.S. bond and stock markets will be closed. Therefore, there is a possibility that some pre-emptive transactions will be concentrated on Thursday. Things could get even more confusing as this is the last trading day of the first quarter of this year.
The S&P 500 is on track for a fifth consecutive month of wins and has been rising since late October. Despite high interest rates aimed at curbing inflation, the U.S. economy has remained surprisingly resilient. Additionally, the Fed is expected to start cutting interest rates this year as inflation cools from its peak.
But critics argue that a broader range of companies would need to achieve strong profit growth to justify the wide swings in prices. Progress in curbing inflation has recently become increasingly difficult, with reports this year being harsher than expected.
Still, traders widely expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to begin lowering key interest rates in June.
In general, stock prices tend to do best when more than half of the world’s central banks are easing interest rates, according to Ned Davis Research. The world is not yet in that situation, but some central banks have already started cutting interest rates recently, such as in Switzerland, which could happen later this year.
In overseas stock markets, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia.
Chinese stocks were some of the worst performers. Stock prices in Hong Kong and Shanghai fell by 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.
___
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
[ad_2]
Source link
