US stocks post huge rally; semis surge by most in over a year
The S&P 500 rose 1.7%, the Nasdaq 100 gained 3%, and the Russell 2000 ended up 0.9% as a bounce back in beleaguered semiconductors and enhanced confidence the Federal Reserve would begin cutting rates in September buoyed stocks.
Tech stocks ran wild, with the S&P sector ETF up 4.2% for its best day of the year. There was one notable exception, however: Microsoft, the most valuable publicly traded company, fell 1% after gains from its AI investments didn’t offset the slowdown in growth for its cloud services business.
It’s the first time Microsoft fell 1% while the Nasdaq 100 gained 3% since January 2002.
Nvidia led the way with a 12.9% increase, and oddly enough, Microsoft was part of the reason why. In its earnings call, management affirmed their commitment to keep plowing billions of dollars into AI investments, supporting demand for Nvidia’s chips. Broadcom wasn’t too far behind with a 12% move higher.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF spiked 7.6%, its best session in more than a year.
Elsewhere, shares of Match surged 13.2% as its quarterly earnings exceeded expectations despite seeing paid users decline.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures had their biggest rise of 2024, up 4.9% after Israel reportedly killed the political leader of Hamas on Iranian soil and Iran vowed retribution.
