© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs/File Photo
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The close closed at its highest level since January 2022, as investors crossed the finish line of a banner month for stocks and saw cooling inflation data as a harbinger of an easing of the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones was a clear outperformer, with solid momentum from Salesforce (NYSE following its consensus-beating earnings report.
It closed modestly in the green, while tech-adjacent momentum and technology stocks, led by Nvidia (NASDAQ ), pushed the Nasdaq into negative territory.
Still, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest monthly percentage gains since July 2022. November was the Dow’s best month for percentage gains since October 2022.
“We’re putting the cherry on top of an exceptional month,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. “It’s a nice reminder to investors of how worried everyone was a month ago, and we just finished one of the best months ever for stocks.”
Among data released Thursday, the Commerce Department’s closely watched Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report showed inflation cooling as expected, along with consumer spending. . The data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve has completed its rate raising cycle.
While New York Fed President John Williams reiterated the central bank’s determination to continue to rely on data, he would not rule out the possibility of further rate hikes if inflation does not continue to moderate.
“The start of much of this month’s strength was the realization that inflation is quickly coming back down to earth; we saw that again today with core PCE data suggesting inflation is no longer a major headwind,” he added. Detrick.
Financial markets have priced in a 95.8% chance that the central bank will allow its key target federal funds rate to remain at 5.25%-5.50% at the December policy meeting.
“There will likely be no rate hikes in the near term, the next step will probably be a cut, probably in the middle of next year,” Detrick said. “The massive drop in (Treasury) yields this month is the bond market’s way of saying it believes the Fed is really done raising rates.”
Powell is scheduled to participate in two separate debates on Friday, at 11 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 520.47 points, or 1.47%, to 35,950.89, the S&P 500 gained 17.22 points, or 0.38%, to 4,567.8 and fell 32.27 points, or 0. .23%, to 14,226.22.
Among the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors, healthcare stocks outperformed, while communications services suffered the steepest percentage decline.
considered a barometer of economic health, advanced 1.4%.
Salesforce jumped 9.4% following the company’s higher-than-expected earnings forecast based on strong demand for its cloud services.
Ford Motor (NYSE:) Co fell 3.1% after the automaker set the cost of a new labor deal at $8.8 billion and lowered its full-year forecast.
Data cloud company Snowflake (NYSE rose 7.1% after forecasting fourth-quarter product revenue above Street estimates.
Pinterest (NYSE:) and Snap Inc. (NYSE:) gained 2.4% and 6.5%, respectively, after Jefferies upgraded the social media companies to “buy” from “hold.”
The issues that rose exceeded those that fell on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of 1.62 to 1; On the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.01 to 1 favored decliners.
The S&P 500 recorded 37 new 52-week highs and two new lows; The Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 109 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 13.22 billion shares, compared to the average of 10.55 billion for the entire session over the last 20 trading days.
