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Updated March 1, 2024 at 6:08 am GMT+8.
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. climbed to more all-time highs on Thursday as Wall Street snapped a nearly month-long winning streak.
S&P 500 Index**2651 points, or 05% to 5096At 27 points, it broke the record set last week. NASDAQ Composite Index** 14418 points or 09%, to 38,99639 points, surpassing the all-time high since 2021, led the gains**. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is 4737 points or 01%, to 3899639 points, slightly lower than the record set last week.
In the bond market, yields fell after a closely watched inflation report showed national price increases were broadly in line with expectations last month. This calmed Wall Street's fears of a potentially unsettling acceleration in inflation data. Previous reports showed higher-than-expected increases at both the consumer and wholesale levels in January.
Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, said:"While inflation is higher than it has been for some time, this may be a flash in the pan rather than the beginning of a worse scenario.
Thursday's report kept hopes that the Fed could start cutting interest rates in June. The Fed has indicated that it could cut rates several times this year.
The Federal Reserve's main interest rate, which is currently at its highest level since 2001, hopes to tame inflation by dragging down the economy with more expensive mortgages and credit card payments. Hopes of an imminent rate cut fueled a sharp end to October in the US, with the S&P 500 just ending its fourth straight month.
However, interest rates will only ease if the Fed sees more convincing data suggesting that inflation is continuing to fall towards its 2% target.
Traders have recently been postponing a decision on when the Fed might start cutting interest rates. A series of strong economic reports pushed expectations back from March. On Thursday, another report showed that the number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits last week was smaller than economists expected. This is the latest sign of a significant resurgence in the job market.
At the same time, there is hope that a solid economy will boost US corporate profit growth, even if it means a postponement of interest rate cuts.
Wednesday night, Salesforcecom became one of the latest companies to report better-than-analyst earnings for the latest quarter. The customer resource management software company also said it plans to start paying quarterly dividends to investors, but its revenue for the coming year fell slightly short of analysts' expectations. The company's shares climbed 3% after a mixed morning gain.
Hormel Foods reported stronger-than-expected profits and revenues, leading gains of 14 in the S&P 5006%。According to Hormel Foods, its portfolio includes skippy peanut butter and chi-chi'Brands such as Hot Sauce and Corn Nuts Snacks saw broad-based growth.
Nvidia climbed 19%, recovering the losses brought by the streak**, which is a rare episode in Wall Street's frenzy around artificial intelligence technology. As one of Wall Street's largest**, NVIDIA is one of the strongest forces pulling the S&P 500 higher.
In the software company C3Shares of AI jumped 245%。
They helped offset bath & body works 54% decline. The perfume, shower gel and three-wick candle seller reported better-than-expected profits, largely due to a strong holiday season, but the company said sales could weaken in the coming year.
Although cloud computing company Snowflake's fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled analysts' expectations, the company was 18 percent after unexpectedly announcing the immediate retirement of CEO Frank Slootman1%。Slotman will be replaced by Sridhar Ramaswamy.
chemours ** out of 315% because the company placed its CEO and two other executives on administrative leave during the review by the audit committee of the board of directors. The company said it needed more time to complete the year-end reporting process and delayed its quarterly results, which were scheduled for Wednesday.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield fell from 427% to 425%。
Track more closely the Fed's expected two-year Treasury yield from 465% to 463%。Shortly before the inflation data was released in the morning, the yield was close to 470%。
In foreign countries**, stock indices were mixed.
The Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index** is 01% as data showed factory output fell at the fastest pace since May 2020 in January, despite stronger-than-expected retail sales.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 02%, while Shanghai** jumped 19%。The smaller Shenzhen** index rose even more after regulators issued new measures to support the market, including tighter regulation of financial derivatives.
Contributed by Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach, business correspondents for the Associated Press.