Stock Market News for September 19, 2024

Stocks rose Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average And S&P 500 Yields rose to new record highs as traders cheered the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to cut interest rates by half a percentage point.

The 30-stock index rose 522.09 points, or 1.26 percent, to close at 42,025.19, marking its first close above the 42,000 threshold. The S&P 500 rose 1.7 percent to close at 5,713.64, breaking above 5,700 for the first time. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.51% to close at 18,013.98.

Traders got some confirmation Thursday that the Fed was engineering a soft landing for the economy as weekly jobless claims fell 12,000 to 219,000, well below estimates.

Technology stocks rose as the rate cut encouraged investors to resume their risk appetite. Nvidia And AMD shares rose about 4% and nearly 6%, respectively. Micron technology 2.2% added. Other Big Tech stocks such as Meta platforms And Alphabet increased by 3.9% and 1.5% respectively.

Stocks that have been raised to cut interest rates and boost the economy also rose on Thursday. Financial giant JPMorgan Chase rose 1.4%. Industrial stocks Caterpillar And Home Depot increased by 5.1% and 1.7% respectively.

The Fed on Wednesday cut its overnight lending rate to a range of 4.75% to 5.00% from 5.25% to 5.50%, surprising some investors who had been critical of the size of the initial cut. It is the first rate cut the Fed has made in four years.

“It’s not surprising that markets are rallying quite a bit today. We’ve gotten a little older on some of our earnings growth estimates,” said Timothy Chubb, chief investment officer at Girard Advisory Services.

“They’ve continued to rise over the last few weeks, but overall there are certainly a lot of companies within the market that are really going to benefit from looser monetary policy; particularly small caps,” he added.