Wall Street ended another session in the green, in trading that was marked by investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks.
Further boosting the US stock exchanges were new data from the national economy, which reveal a more robust labor market – a scenario that, even so, does not call into question a new interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, according to analysts, even though this may be less aggressive.
The Department of Labor revealed that Unemployment benefit applications reached 218 thousand last week, below estimates that pointed to 225 thousand. The final reading of the gross domestic product (GDP) confirmed that the economy grew 3% in the second quarter.
Boosting the main indices was also the Chinese executive’s announcement of more measures to support and stabilize the country’s real estate market. The new package of stimulus measures aims to halt the slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.
Marking the 42nd record closing this year alone, the S&P 500 advanced 0.4% to 5,745.37 points. In turn, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.60% to 18,190.29 points and the Dow Jones added 0.62% to 42,175.11 points.
In this session, the artificial intelligence (AI) sector gained strength, with Micron climbing more than 17% after revising its annual revenue upwards compared to the values recorded in the first quarter, which it justified with the great demand for semiconductors.
On the other hand, the investigation carried out by the Department of Justice into Super Micro Computer – which also tends to benefit from the AI boom – sank the North American company’s shares by more than 12%.
This Friday, the market will be paying attention to the release of the PCE index for August – the personal consumption price index -, the so-called The Fed’s preferred inflation indicator. Investors hoped that central bank leader Jerome Powell’s speech this Thursday would reveal some clues about the future of the country’s monetary policy, but to no avail.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
