Wall Street notched fresh record highs on Thursday, driven by a tech rally led by Nvidia and Intel after the two firms announced a deal that includes a $5 billion investment.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and is on track for a third straight winning week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 124 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9%. All three set all-time highs.
Intel soared 22.8% for its best day since 1987 after Nvidia said it would buy $5 billion of the struggling chipmaker's stock. It's part of a collaboration where the pair will develop products for data centers and personal computers.
Nvidia climbed 3.5% and was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 because it's Wall Street's most valuable company.
Encouraging reports on the economy sent Treasury yields climbing in the bond market, meanwhile, including one that said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected.
That could indicate the pace of layoffs is slowing, and it was a relief after the prior week's data showed a disconcerting leap to a four-year high. The job market has slowed so much that the Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday cut its main interest rate for the first time this year in order to give it some help.
The Fed also indicated more cuts may be on the way, though Chair Jerome Powell warned that the central bank is in a precarious position and may have to change course quickly. That's because the economy is in an unusual situation where the job market is slowing while inflation is remaining stubbornly high at the same time.
The Fed is in charge of fixing both, but it has only one tool to do so. And helping one by moving interest rates often hurts the other in the short term.
Expectations are high on Wall Street that the Fed will keep cutting interest rates, and an unexpected halt could send stocks tumbling. Critics say stock prices have already shot too high and become too expensive, in part because of heavy bets on continued cuts in rates.
On Wall Street, smaller stocks led the way. They can be some of the biggest beneficiaries of easier interest rates, and the Russell 2000 index of small stocks rallied 2.5% to join its bigger rivals in setting all-time highs. It topped its prior record, which was set in 2021.
Stocks in the cryptocurrency industry jumped to strong gains, including rises of 7% for Coinbase Global, 20.7% for Bullish and 7.2% for Circle Internet Group. Bitcoin climbed above $117,500 following the Fed’s cut to interest rates.
Novo Nordisk saw its stock that trades in the United States rise 6.3% after the Danish company said a newly published study showed its once-a-day pill version of Wegovy helped people lose significant weight. It also said that its Ozempic product reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke and death for patients versus another treatment for some people with type 2 diabetes.
On the losing end of Wall Street, the company behind Olive Garden and other restaurant chains sank 7.7% after it reported a profit for the latest quarter that was below analysts' expectations. Darden Restaurants also raised its forecast for revenue growth this fiscal year, but not by much more than analysts expected.
Live Nation fell 2.8% after the Federal Trade Commission and a group of state attorneys general sued its Ticketmaster business, accusing it of forcing fans to pay more to see live events through a variety of illegal tactics.
The Walt Disney Co. slipped 1.1% after the entertainment giant announced that its ABC television division had suspended Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk's killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show.
Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel's comments "truly sick" and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and Disney accountable for spreading misinformation.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 31.61 points to 6,631.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 124.10 to 46,142.42, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 209.40 to 22,470.73.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia.
London’s FTSE 100 added 0.2% after the Bank of England held its main interest rate steady.
South Korea's Kospi rallied 1.4%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.11% from 4.06% late Wednesday. It’s a notable move after it had briefly dropped below 4% on Wednesday, weighed down by expectations for continued cuts to interest rates by the Fed.
