Dow pops 500 points as Wall Street rallies a day after big Fed rate cut: Live updates

Several stocks in the S&P 500 — including major tech giants, homebuilders and financial names — reached fresh 52-week highs during Friday’s trading session.

Lennar added 1.5% ahead of its third-quarter earnings expected after market close. Other homebuilders, namely D.R. Horton and PulteGroup, also rose during the day. Regional banks Fifth Third Bancorp, KeyCorp and M&T Bank also jumped, alongside financials American Express, BlackRock and PNC Financial Services.

Take a look at some of the names that reached new levels on Friday:

• Meta Platforms trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in May, 2012
• Netflix trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in May, 2002
• D.R. Horton trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in June, 1992
• Hasbro trading at levels not seen since Sept, 2023
• Lennar trading at all-time high levels back to when it began trading in 1971
• Ameriprise Financial trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in Oct, 2005
• American Express trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in May, 1977
• Fiserv trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in Sep, 1986
• PNC Financial Services Group trading at levels not seen since Apr, 2022
• Paypal trading at levels not seen since Apr, 2023
• Boston Scientific trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in May, 1992
• GE Aerospace trading at levels not seen since Nov, 2007

— Pia Singh, Chris Hayes

Shares of the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) rose more than 2% in morning trading, hitting a new 52-week high. This marks the first time the fund has traded above $89 since November 2021.

Shares have risen more than 9% this year and more than 1% week to date, which puts it on pace for its first positive week in three.

— Sean Conlon, Gina Francolla

Shares of Progyny tumbled 30% on Thursday after the company said it is losing a “significant” client.

Progyny, which partners with employers to provide fertility benefits, did not reveal the name of the client in its filing, which came after the closing bell Wednesday.

“The Client, which represents approximately 670,000 members as of June 30, 2024, comprised 12% and 13% of the Company’s revenue for the six-month period ending June 30, 2024, and the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2023, respectively,” CEO Peter Anevski wrote in the filing.

The company would only say the client comprises a “smaller percentage” of Progyny’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. However, “no other existing client comprises more than a single digit percentage of revenue or Adjusted EBITDA,” it said.

Truist believes that client is Amazon, analyst Jailendra Singh said in a note after the filing Wednesday. She maintained her buy rating on the stock, but lowered her price target to $26 from $36, which suggests 6% upside from Wednesday’s close.

— Michelle Fox

BMO hiked its year-end target for the S&P 500 to a Wall Street high.

Chief investment strategist Brian Belski lifted his year-end target for the broad index by 500 points to 6,100. That new forecast suggests the S&P 500 can climb 8.6% from Wednesday’s close.

“Much like our last target increase in May, we continue to be surprised by the strength of market gains and decided yet again that something more than an incremental adjustment was warranted,” Belski wrote to clients in a Thursday note.

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— Alex Harring

Gordon Haskett’s Don Bilson put a spotlight on GE Vernova’s recent strong performance. The former General Electric business has been the top performer in the S&P 500 over the past month as it is seen as a solution to artificial intelligence’s need to power its models at data centers.

Bilson noted that the combined market cap of GE Vernova, GE HealthCare and GE Aerospace yields more than $300 billion in value for the former GE units — three times GE’s market cap at the end of 2019.

“‘Triples’ aren’t necessarily hard to find in the Industrials space since the late 2019,” he wrote in a research note, citing Eaton, Parker-Hannifin and Trane as other examples. “Still. GE was almost considered to be toxic back then and by bouncing back so resoundingly, GE has established itself as one of the best, if not THE best, event-driven stories of this decade, which is almost halfway over.”

— Christina Cheddar Berk

The catch-up rally for utility stocks is about to run out of steam, according to Wells Fargo.

The firm downgraded the utilities sector to neutral from overweight. Strategist Christopher Harvey said in a note to clients that the narrative around the group has changed from late last year, when Wells Fargo upgraded the sector.

“The excessively negative sentiment and oversold technicals from late-2023 have eased. The group is a top performer YTD, indicating event-risk uncertainty is well reflected,” the note said.

The utilities sector, as measured by the SPDR XLU ETF, is up about 24% year to date, which is better than the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.

Stocks began Thursday’s trading session in the green.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 552 points, or 1.3%. The S&P 500 added 1.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.6%.

— Hakyung Kim

Homebuilder stocks were higher before the opening bell Thursday, after the Federal Reserve’s oversized rate cut spurred hopes that mortgage rates could fall.

Shares of Lennar Corporation ticked up nearly 4%, while D.R. Horton climbed roughly 3%. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) advanced more than 3% before the opening bell.

Stocks that are traditionally tied to economic growth were trending higher ahead of the opening bell Thursday.

Shares of Caterpillar rose more than 2%, while Target added about 1.5%. Bank stocks were also performing well, with JPMorgan gaining 1.2% and KeyCorp climbing 2.5%.

The morning gains for these stocks could be a sign that traders are growing more confident about the economy after the Federal Reserve’s rate cut on Wednesday.

— Jesse Pound

Initial filings for unemployment insurance slumped last week, indicating a benign pace of layoffs, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Weekly jobless claims totaled 219,000 for the week ending Sept. 14, the lowest since May 18 and below the Dow Jones estimate for 229,000. The total was 12,000 below the previous week’s upwardly revised level.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged lower to 1.829 million.

—Jeff Cox

Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, said the Federal Reserve is navigating a difficult “balancing act” as the central bank started its ease cycle with a big rate cut.

“The challenge of the Federal Reserve is to keep interest rates high enough that they’re good for the creditor, while keeping them not so high that they’re problematic for the debtor,” Dalio told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.

The notable investor once again expressed concerns about “the enormous amount of debt” that is being created by governments and monetized by central banks.

“Those magnitudes have never existed in my lifetime,” he said. “I see a big depreciation in the value of that debt through a combination of artificial low real rates, so you won’t be compensated.”

— Yun Li

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

SLB stock rose 2% in early trading after the oilfield services company announced a collaboration with Nvidia on artificial intelligence solutions for the energy sector.

SLB is working with Nvidia to accelerate generative AI models across its digital and data platforms, the companies announced Tuesday. The models will be used for subsurface exploration and production operations as well as data management.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the models will help industry scientists and engineers optimize energy supplies and innovate clean energy solutions.

“As we navigate the delicate balance between energy production and decarbonization, generative AI is emerging as a crucial catalyst for change,” SLB CEO Olivier Le Peuch said.

SLB stock is down more than 7% over the past month and about 20% this year.

— Spencer Kimball

The Bank of England on Thursday announced it would hold interest rates steady. The decision comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve opted for an outsized cut of 50 basis points.

The English central bank lowered rates at its August meeting for the first time in over four years.

Following the announcement, the British pound strengthened 0.7% against the dollar at $1.3306.

— Hakyung Kim

European markets opened higher Thursday as investors digested the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut in four years and looked ahead to the Bank of England’s rate decision later in the session.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 1% in opening trade, with all major bourses and virtually all sectors in the green. Mining stocks added 2.02% while telecoms were the sole outlier, down 0.29%.

— Karen Gilchrist

DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach, who correctly called Wednesday’s super-sized rate cut, said he believes the incoming economic data will show more signs of weakness in the U.S.

“I expect to see weaker economic data in coming reports, I still think there’s a good shot that the history books will say September 2024 was the start of a recession,” Gundlach said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”

As for the market impact from rate cuts, Gundlach believes the easing cycle could provide a bigger boost to small-cap stocks than their large-cap counterparts. That’s because much of the S&P 500 companies have fixed-rate debt, while Gundlach estimated that 45% of the Russell 2000 companies, excluding financials, have floating-rate debt.

“I’m pretty sure that this fed cycle will create a much bigger tailwind for the Russell 2000 than the S&P 500,” he said.

— Yun Li

Shares of Steelcase were last trading 10% lower Wednesday night after the furniture manufacturer missed analysts’ second-quarter revenue expectations.

Steelcase reported revenue of $855.8 million in its latest quarter while Wall Street analysts had anticipated sales of $864.2 million, FactSet showed. The company also forecast third-quarter revenue in the range of $785 million and $810 million. Analysts had previously expected $812.1 million.

However, Steelcase’s second-quarter adjusted earnings of 39 cents per share beat consensus estimates of 37 cents per share.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stock futures traded higher Wednesday night.

Dow futures rose 85 points, or 0.2%, shortly after 6 p.m. ET. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

— Lisa Kailai Han