Thursday saw a sharp reversal on Wall Street as U.S. stocks rose as concerns about the slowing economy subsided following an unemployment report that was better than anticipated.
After a terrible start to the week, the S&P 500 gained 2.3 per cent, marking its best day since 2022 and wiping out all but 0.5 per cent of its loss. Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks led the way as the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 683 points, or 1.8 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite increased 2.9 per cent.
The S&P 500 was down almost 10 per cent from its record high set last month at its worst.
US fed fomc meeting
As it has done since last July, the U.S. central bank maintained its benchmark overnight interest rate last week in the range of 5.25 per cent to 5.50 per cent. However, at their upcoming policy meeting in September, policymakers indicated that they intended to lower borrowing costs.
Nonetheless, the government's monthly nonfarm payrolls report released last Friday revealed that job growth significantly slowed in July and that the unemployment rate increased to 4.3 per cent, raising concerns in the markets at the time that the labor market might be deteriorating quickly enough to necessitate aggressive action from the Fed.
Top gainers
The Nasdaq composite shuttered at 16,660.02 points, and the index saw a sharp runup of 2.87 per cent on the bourse. The Nasdaq touched a day level of 16,690.95 points, marking a high run-up of over 3 per cent on the Wall Street.
The S&P500 also saw a surge of almost 2.4 per cent, the index touched day high levels of 5,328.50 points on Wall Street. The S&P500 concluded at 5,319.31 points on the bourse.
After a handful of them almost singlehandedly drove the S&P 500 to dozens of all-time highs this year, the group known as the 'Magnificent Seven' lost momentum last month amid criticism that their prices soared too high in investors’ frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.
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