A tech rally boosted US stocks on Wednesday, with all three major indexes hitting new record closes, as investors digested Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments that US economy is in “remarkably good shape.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) climbed about 0.7%, or over 300 points, to close above 45,000 for the first time ever. Meanwhile the S&P 500 (^GSPC) added roughly 0.6% for a fresh closing high of 6,086.49. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added 1.3%, clinching a record of its own at 19,735.12.
Cloud and e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) hit intraday all-time highs on Wednesday, as did iPhone maker Apple (AAPL). AI chip darling Nvidia (NVDA) gained over 3%, nearing its own record. Salesforce (CRM) stock surged 11% after the software maker’s quarterly revenue beat boosted hopes for its artificial intelligence products.
Markets kept moving higher as Powell spoke at the New York Times DealBook Summit and did little to shake investor confidence that the Fed will cut interest rates at its December meeting. Powell touted a US economy in “remarkably good shape” as a reason he feels the Fed can be “afford to be a little more cautious” in its interest rate cutting path.
The central bank is widely expected to lower rates at its Dec. 18 meeting. Traders see near 77% odds of a 25 basis point cut, compared with around 67% a week ago, per the CME FedWatch tool.
On that economic strength: A reading on private payrolls suggested the labor market is softening — but not too much. The report is one of several key economic releases this week, leading into the all-important monthly jobs report on Friday.
In corporate news, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) halted its investor day after the CEO of insurance unit UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
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A sign the labor market might still be a ‘little tight’
The labor market has showed signs of further cooling in the second half of 2024. But there have still be an occasional signs of labor market tightness within data, as seen in a Wednesday release from ADP.
New data from ADP released Wednesday showed that the median year-over-year pay increase for job switchers rose to 7.2% in November, up from 6.7% in October. Meanwhile, the year-over-year pay increase for job stayers rose to 4.8% from 4.7% the month prior, marking the first monthly increase in wage growth for job stayers in 25 months.
“Job changers are the most sensitive to real time labor market conditions,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson told Yahoo Finance. “So if they’re getting paid a little bit more in November than they did in October, that tells you that there’s a labor market out there that’s still a little tight. And that is meaningful to the fed.”
Specifically, Richardson added, it could be a challenge for a Fed that’s already been digesting inflation prints that have shown little progress in recent months.
“As long as you have sticky inflation and strong wage growth, you can’t be on a preset course to cutting rates, because that could come and bite you later,” Richardson said. “So I think they’re still going to be very cautious, very data dependent.”
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