Key Takeaways
- Tech stocks are jumping in the wake of Wednesday’s rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
- All of the Magnificent Seven stocks are on the rise.
- Staples, utilities and real estate stocks were recently in retreat.
Stocks are racing ahead today, with tech stocks out in front.
The S&P 500 is climbing in Thursday morning trading, up about 1.7%. Its IT sector was recently up some 3.4%, while the communications services sector—home to companies like Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet (GOOGL)—was ahead by 2.4%. The consumer discretionary sector, which includes Tesla (TSLA) and Airbnb (ABNB), was up about 2%.
All of the Magnificent Seven stocks—Meta, Alphabet and Tesla, as well as Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL)—were recently in the green, led by Tesla and Nvidia. The PHLX Semiconductor Index was up close to 5%.
The Federal Reserve yesterday kicked off a rate-cutting cycle, cutting its benchmark rate by 50 basis points and setting the table for further cuts ahead. Today that’s been good news for tech stocks, as well as leading cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin recently traded around $63,255.
Not all of the benchmark S&P 500 was rising. Staples, utilities and real estate stocks were recently in the red. The blue-chip Dow industrials also rose, though a third of its components were recently in retreat.