Wall Street Ends Higher, Thanks to Tesla and Nvidia
On Thursday, Wall Street ended higher rather sharply, in a session that remained choppy. Investors were looking ahead at an important jobs report that is scheduled to be released on Friday. Both Nvidia and Tesla gave Wall Street a boost, as both saw an increase of 4%, as did Meta Platforms. This helped both, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, as well as the S&P 500 index. Apple also saw an increase of 1.7%, while Amazon climbed up by 3.1%. There was a rise in 10 of the 11 sector indexes of the S&P 500, with the highest gains in Consumer Discretionary of about 3.03%. Materials followed with a gain of about 2.69%.
Earlier in the day, there had been a decline in US stocks after LaelBrainard, the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, stated that she was in favor of a few more interest rate hikes of about half a percentage point. She also said that she did not see the possibility of putting a stop to the hike in interest rates in September if the inflationary pressures do not cool down any time soon. Recent sessions saw the US stock market make a rather modest recovery, as investors were debating if the worst selloff to have occurred on Wall Street this year might finally be over.
Market strategists said that volatility had always been the exception, but it is now becoming a norm. They said that inflation is wreaking havoc on stocks and until these numbers are controlled, the stock market is likely to stay volatile. In early January, the S&P 500 index had closed at a record high, but the index has now come down by almost 13%. There was also a 3.6% increase in the Philadelphia Semiconductor index, which closed at its highest level in nearly a month.
The month of May saw a less-than-expected increase in US private payrolls, which suggests that labor demand could finally be slowing down in light of toughening financial conditions and the rising inflation numbers. Now, investors are looking forward to the nonfarm payrolls data that is scheduled to be published on Friday, as it will provide hints about the health of the US economy and the possibility of the Fed slowing down their aggressive interest rate hike. Analysts have predicted that 325,000 jobs were added in the last month in the economy. There was a 1.84% increase in the S&P 500 index unofficially, as it closed the session at 4,176.82 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.33% and 2.69% and closed at 33,248.28 and 12,316.90 points, respectively. There was a 0.8% in Microsoft’s value, even though the tech giant slashed its forecast for revenue and profits in the fourth quarter because of the impact of a stronger US dollar. A 5.2% loss was seen in Hewlett Packard, as the full-year forecast of the company turned out to be rather disappointing because of its Russian exit and the impact of currency.
