US stock futures jumped on Thursday, setting the stage for fresh record highs. Investors welcomed a slew of updates, including solid US economic data, Micron’s (MU) upbeat earnings, and China’s pledges of more stimulus while they waited to hear from Jerome Powell.
Stocks are looking solidly positive again thanks to a double dose of optimism for the AI trade, for the health of the US economy, and for China’s stimulus push, which could reverberate through US markets.
Nvidia (NVDA) supplier Micron lifted its next-quarter revenue forecast, citing robust demand for its memory chips used in AI data centers. Chip stocks Nvidia (NVDA), AMD (AMD), ASML (ASML), and STMicro (STM) rose in the wake of the earnings report.
Also, a final update from the US government on second quarter GDP growth beat Wall Street expectations, while weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell to the lowest levels in four months.
Meanwhile, China’s top leaders signaled they are pulling out the stops to revive its moribund economy with new pledges to lift fiscal spending, halt the property crisis and support the stock market. A big jump in mainland stocks set the CSI 300 (000300.SS) on track for its best week in a decade.
Helping the upbeat mood were growing expectations for another jumbo interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve. Traders are pricing in 60% odds of a 0.5% move at its November meeting, versus 40% a week ago.
Investors are waiting for Fed Chair Powell’s statement later to test those hopes, the highlight in a parade of Fed speakers on Thursday. Their comments will set the stage for Friday’s highly anticipated reading on the PCE index, the inflation metric preferred by the Fed.
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Fresh economic data comes in better than expected
The US economy grew at a 3% annualized pace in the second quarter, a faster pace than Wall Street had expected.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis’s third estimate of second quarter US gross domestic product (GDP) was unchanged from the second estimate which had shown 3% annualized growth. Economists had estimated the reading to show annualized growth of 2.9%. The third estimate for second quarter GDP confirms that economic growth was higher than the 1.4% annualized growth seen in the first quarter.
Separately, data from the US Labor Department released Thursday showed 218,000 unemployment claims were filed in the week ending Sep. 21, below Wall Street’s expectations for 223,000. This marked the the lowest level of weekly claims since the middle of May.
Also out Thursday, durable goods orders for August were flat, better than the 2.6% decline Wall Street had expected.
