Stocks hit fresh record on more China stimulus, solid data
The S&P 500 closed up 0.4% on Thursday, posting another record high close. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.7%. The Russell 2000 advanced 0.6%.
China ramped up pledges to support the economy and property sector, resulting in a rally among China stocks. The CSI 300 index, which tracks the performance of the top 300 Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks, is up over 10% so far this week. If that holds, it would be the index’s biggest weekly gain since December 2014. Prices on copper and steel rose.
The materials sector was the best-performing S&P 500 sector ETF, up 2.1%.
Conversely, the energy sector lost 2%. Several oil stocks, including Diamondback Energy and Oneok, registered substantial drops. The Financial Times reported earlier that Saudi Arabia is willing to accept lower prices for crude oil as it and other OPEC+ nations return more barrels to the market. As a result, WTI crude for November delivery settled down 2.9%, while November Brent crude dropped 2.5%.
Meanwhile, US data showed favorable economic conditions persist. Weekly jobless claims fell from last week, while a third estimate of second quarter GDP stayed at 3%, meeting expectations. Treasury yields gained. The US dollar was briefly up in the morning but still slid.
Among individual movers, Micron led S&P 500 stocks, up 14.8%, after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected revenues and forecasted strong growth on AI demand on Wednesday after the bell. That contributed to a strong gain of 2.9% for the VanEck Semiconductor ETF.
The strong showing for semis came in spite of terrible news for Super Micro Computer, which plunged 12.2% on a report that the Justice Department is investigating the company.
