US markets end higher on Thursday

13 Sep 2024 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Thursday with Nasdaq settling over 170 points gains as traders remained optimistic about the outlook for interest rates following this week's inflation data. While the data has seemingly reduced the likelihood the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 50 basis points next week, rates are still expected to be notably lower by the end of the year. A private report suggested rates will be lower by at least a full percentage point following the Fed's December meeting. On the sectoral front, gold stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, resulting in a 5.8 percent spike by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. Substantial strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 3.5 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

On the economic data front, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand crept up by 0.2 percent in August, while revised data showed prices were unchanged in July. Street had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent, matching the uptick originally reported for the previous month. The report said the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 1.7 percent in August from a downwardly revised 2.1 percent in July. The year-over-year increase by producer prices was expected to decelerate to 1.8 percent from the 2.2 percent originally reported for the previous month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 235.06 points or 0.58 percent to 41,096.77, Nasdaq jumped 174.15 points or 1 percent to 17,569.68 and S&P 500 was up by 41.63 points or 0.75 percent to 5,595.76.

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