Wall Street today: US stocks jump after Fed rate cut, Big Tech shares rally

US stocks jumped on Thursday after the Federal Reserve kicked off its easing cycle with half-a-percentage point cut in interest rates.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve slashed its interest rates by 50 basis points (bps), first time in more than four years.

Chair Jerome Powell said that as the inflation has come down from its peak two summers ago the Fed can focus more on keeping the job market solid and the economy out of a recession.

He also said that the Fed officials are not in “a rush to get this done” and would make decisions at each successive policy meeting depending on what the data says.

As of 10 a.m. Eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2 per cent, the Nasdaq Composite was 2.2 per cent higher, and the S&P 500 was 1.5 per cent higher.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 469.5 points, or 1.13 per cent, to 41972.56. The S&P 500 rose 84.4 points, or 1.50 per cent, to 5702.63, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 407.6 points, or 2.32 per cent, to 17980.891.

Among the Big Tech stocks, Nvidia climbed 4.5 per cent, Microsoft added 2 per cent, and Apple advanced 2.6 per cent.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla gained 4.2 per cent.

Shares of Bank of America and Wells Fargo rose over 1 per cent each after the banks lowered their respective prime lending rates.

Citigroup shares added 1.9 per cent.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.73 per cent from 3.71 per cent late on Wednesday. The 2-year Treasury yield slipped to 3.60 per cent from 3.63 per cent.

Bullion

Gold prices rose toward a record on Thursday after a 50 bps cut in rates by the Federal Reserve.

Spot gold traded 0.7 per cent higher at $2,577.24 an ounce at 3:10 pm. 

Crude oil

Oil prices advanced on Thursday following the steep interest rates cut by the Fed.

West Texas Intermediate rose to top $71 a barrel, while Brent futures climbed above $74 a barrel.