Stock market today: Wall Street rises after data on the economy stomps expectations
U.S. stocks are rising following signals that the economy is growing much more powerfully than economists expected
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are ticking higher Thursday following signals that the economy is growing much more powerfully than economists expected.
The S&P 500 was up 0.2% in afternoon trading and on track to set a record for a fifth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 12:58 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
IBM was helping to lead the market with a gain of 10.8% after it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It helped offset a 13.1% tumble for Tesla, whose earnings and revenue fell short of forecasts. The electric-vehicle maker also warned of notably lower sales growth this year.
But Wall Street’s main focus was on a report indicating the U.S. economy continues to steam ahead, demolishing last year’s forecasts for an imminent recession because of high interest rates.
The economy grew at a 3.3% annual rate in the last three months of 2023, according to an initial estimate by the U.S. government. That was much stronger than the 1.8% growth economists expected, according to FactSet. Such a resilient economy should drive profits for companies, which are one of the main inputs that set stock prices.
The report also gave encouraging corroboration that inflation continued to moderate at the end of 2023. Hopes are high that inflation has cooled enough from its peak two summers ago for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates this year. That in turn would ease the pressure on financial markets and boost investment prices.
Such cuts would be a sharp turnaround from the prior two years of
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