Wall Street pushed higher early Thursday as companies continued to report strong earnings and strong hints from the Federal Reserve that a cut to interest rates was coming as soon as next month.
Futures for the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% higher before the bell, while futures for the Dow industrials were unchanged. The technology heavy Nasdaq were up 0.6%.
With more than two-thirds of companies having reported quarterly results, 78% have beat Wall Street’s targets, according to the data firm FactSet.
Before markets opened on Thursday, the burger chain Shake Shack reported profits that met Wall Street expectations as it rang up more than $300 million in sales for the first time ever. Investors rewarded the New York company by pushing its shares 9.6% higher.
Shares in Facebook parent company Meta soared 8.3% in off-hours trading after the social media platform reported stronger than expected revenue from its advertising business. The company said it expects to spend big on investments in artificial intelligence next year.
Toyota tumbled 6.5%, even after the Japanese automaker reported that its April-June profit rose 1.7% to a record $8.9 billion for the period.
Reporting after the bell Thursday are iPhone maker Apple and online retail giant Amazon.
Central bank movements remained in the spotlight after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark rate a day earlier and the Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged. The Bank of England on Thursday cut interest rates for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
The nine-member policymaking panel backed a quarter-point reduction in its main interest rate to 5%, from the 16-year high of 5.25%.
Inflation in the U.K overall had already hit the bank’s target of 2%, something the U.S. central bank is still reaching for.
On Wednesday, markets surged as Treasury yields eased in the bond market after the Federal Reserve gave the clearest indication yet that it could begin lowering interest rates in September.
“A September cut is now priced in with certainty, and almost three cuts are priced in by the year-end,” said Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING Economics.
In remarks following the central bank’s latest meeting wrapped up on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell strongly suggested that a rate cut was coming as long as late summer data continued on its recent trajectory.
“We think that the time is approaching,” Powell said. “And if we do get the data that we hope we get, then a reduction in our policy rate could be on the table at the September meeting.”
Powell spent much of an ensuing press conference discussing the risks of both moving too early or too late with rate cuts. One could allow inflation to reaccelerate, while the other could cause unnecessary pain for the economy and ultimately throw Americans out of their jobs.
In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX each declined 1%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 was essentially flat.
In Asian trading, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank more than 1,000 points earlier in the day and ended trading down 2.5% at 38,126.33.
A stronger yen increases the purchasing power of Japanese homes and businesses but hurts the profits of exporters like Toyota by eroding the value of their overseas earnings.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.2% to 17,304.96, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.2% to 2,932.39.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.3% to 8,114.70, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3% to 2,777.68.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 150.51 Japanese yen from 149.98 yen. The euro cost $1.0793, down from $1.0830. The dollar had been trading at 160-yen levels several weeks ago. But that reversed course as anticipation grew for a Bank of Japan rate cut, which came Wednesday.
On Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude rose 45 cents to $78.36 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 51 cents to $81.35 a barrel.
The euro slipped to $1.0793 from $1.0825.
On Wall Street Wednesday, the S&P 500 jumped 1.6% to 5,522.30 for its best day since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 40,842.79 and the Nasdaq composite soared 2.6% to 17,599.40.
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