US Stock market today: Wall Street roars, S&P 500 posts best day since Election Day
US stock market roared back on Friday to nearly halve their losses from what was tracking to be one of the market’s worst weeks of the year. Wall Street index S&P 500 rallied 1.4 per cent toward its best day since Election Day and shaved its loss for the week down to 1.7 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 602 points, or 1.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.4 per cent.
Superstar stock Nvidia and other Big Tech companies led the market, which got a lift after a report said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists expected. It’s an encouraging signal following recent reports suggesting inflation may be tough to get all the way down to the Fed’s 2 per cent goal from its peak above 9 per cent.
The threat of higher inflation was one of the reasons Fed Chair Jerome Powell gave this week when the central bank hinted it may deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than it earlier expected.
That warning sent a shock through the stock market, which had run to all-time highs amid the widespread assumption the Fed would deliver a string of cuts to rates in 2025. Now traders are largely betting on one, two or perhaps even zero, according to data from CME Group.
Friday’s better-than-expected inflation data pushed traders to trim their bets for zero cuts in 2025, which they now collectively see a 16.5 per cent chance of. Easier interest rates can goose the economy by making it cheaper for households and businesses to borrow, but they
