- Weekly jobless claims rise last week
- Faraday Future starts production of luxury EVs
- Roku benefits from plans to cut 200 jobs
- Indices up: Dow 0.45%, S&P 0.57%, Nasdaq 0.62%
March 30 (Portal) – Wall Street’s main indices rose on Thursday as fears of a banking crisis eased, with rate-sensitive real estate and technology stocks leading gains ahead of key inflation data that could shape Federal Reserve policy.
Investors are awaiting the February reading of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, the Fed’s preferred indicator of inflation, which is due out on Friday after January numbers showed a sharp acceleration in consumer spending.
Data on Thursday showed that jobless claims rose more-than-expected last week from the week before the job market slowed, while fourth-quarter GDP growth came in at 2.6%, slightly below previous estimates of 2.7%, the both for a softer Fed speaks politics.
“Despite the (GDP) downgrade, it’s still a solid performance despite rising interest rates and elevated inflation… but there have been signs the US economy is losing momentum,” said Tom Hopkins, portfolio manager at BRI Wealth Management.
Investors will also be scouring comments from Boston Fed President Susan Collins, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Richmond President Thomas Barkin later in the day for clues about the central bank’s post-banking crisis monetary policy plans.
According to CME Group’s Fedwatch tool, traders’ bets are now almost evenly split between a pause and a 25 basis point rate hike by the Fed in May.
Megacaps Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) rose 0.4% to 1.1%, boosting consumer discretionary ( .SPLRCD) and technology (.SPLRCT) indices by 0.8% each.
Real estate stocks (.SPLRCR) led sector gains, up 1.1%.
The banking turmoil, which began earlier this month with the collapse of two regional US lenders, had raised concerns about a broader financial crisis and led to a dramatic shift in the Fed’s monetary policy expectations.
Despite the turmoil in the banking sector, both the S&P 500 (.SPX) and the Nadsaq (.IXIC) are headed for quarterly gains, with the latter on track for its best quarter since late 2020.
As of 9:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was up 148.06 points, or 0.45%, to 32,865.66, and the S&P 500 (.SPX) was up 22.97 points, or 0.57% 4,050.78 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was up 73.81 points, or 0.62%, to 12,000.05.
Among other things, Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc (FFIE.O) rose 1.5% after the company announced it had started production of its first luxury electric car after a months-long delay.
Streaming platform Roku Inc (ROKU.O) gained 1.3% on plans to cut about 200 jobs, while Kohl’s Corp (KSS.N) gained 6.9% after its chief executive officer held shares of the company bought.
US-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding rose 2.7% after reports that its logistics arm with banks began preparations for its Hong Kong IPO, while JD.Com amid plans to spin off its Real estate infrastructure division up 7%.
Rising issuance outweighed declines with a 7.33-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.87-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index posted six new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq made 34 new highs and 28 new lows.
Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar; Edited by Anil D’Silva and Vinay Dwivedi
Our standards: The Trust Principles.