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Update: US Equity Indexes Jump as Sliding Odds for Fed Policy Tightening in September Push Treasury Yields Lower
(Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)US equity indexes rose in a broad-based rally as falling odds of the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates later this month pushed government bond yields lower.The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4% to 26,584.06, the S&P 500 climbed 1.1% to 7,747.71, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.2% to 53,686.11 on Thursday. All sectors rose except energy, materials and consumer staples. Communication services, consumer discretionary and financials topped the gainers.Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he would be "inclined to support" holding rates steady at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting in September if the August inflation print shows progress toward the central bank's 2% goal."Yields retreated in reaction to Waller's latest comments," Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel, said in a note. "The relatively quick and notable reaction in the market to the latest Fed commentary suggests investors were already skeptical of the Fed's intentions to move forward with firmer policy as early as later this month."The probability of the Fed raising its target rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.0% in September slumped to 50% after midday Thursday from 63% a day ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The remaining likelihood is that policy will remain on hold.Treasury yields fell, with the 10-year down 2.4 basis points to 4.77% and the two-year lower by 4.6 basis points to 4.34%.Gold futures surged 2.4% to $4,518.3, and silver futures soared 3.2% to $67.53.In company news, Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and PwC expanded their strategic alliance to help enterprises deploy artificial intelligence tools across critical business operations, PwC said Thursday. Palantir shares jumped 7.7%, the top gainer on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.Nvidia (NVDA) has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, Chief Executive Jensen Huang said in a blog post.Snowflake (SNOW) shares soared 17% as the cloud-based data platform lifted its full-year product revenue outlook. Snowflake could see faster revenue growth as business use of AI increases demand for data products, and strong usage and backlog trends combined with wider AI adoption could push growth above current expectations, UBS said in a note.In geopolitical news, the US and Iran have intensified tit-for-tat military strikes in recent days, remaining locked between ceasefire and all-out war as the White House struggles to end the six-month conflict, Bloomberg reported. Iran said it attacked bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates "in response to America's crimes against the Iranian people," Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern broadcaster, reported.In economic news, initial jobless claims rose sequentially to 206,000 during the week ended Aug. 29 from an upwardly revised 204,000, compared with expectations for an increase to 205,000 in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. The four-week moving average rose by 1,500 to 207,250.The Institute for Supply Management's US services index rose to 55.4 in August from 54.1 in July, compared with expectations for no change in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. The index now sits at its highest since February, before Operation Epic Fury and the run-up in energy prices from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Jefferies note.
Dow JonesNasdaq CompositeS&P 500$NVDA$PLTR$SNOW
