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Stock Market News: Nasdaq Closes at Record High
The three major indexes marked their best start to an election year since 2012.
Last Updated:
February 29, 2024 at 7:55 PM EST
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Stocks ended the day in the green, with the Nasdaq Composite hitting a record close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 had their best two-month start to the year since 2019.
Earlier, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge came in as expected. The core personal consumption expenditures price index increased 0.4% on a monthly basis in January.
For live coverage and analysis of the PCE release, click here._
Snowflake stock was down over 19% after it reported disappointing guidance and the departure of its CEO. And the price of Bitcoin was rising, pushing closer to its all-time high.
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The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high on Thursday and as stocks shrugged off the latest data showing rising prices.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% to 16,091.92, based on preliminary numbers, topping its previous closing record of 16,057.44 from November 2021.
It snapped a 569 trading day streak without a record, its longest such streak since the 3,801 trading days between March 2000 and April 2015, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The tech-heavy index sank in 2022 amid soaring inflation and rising interest rates. It has roared back in the past year amid hype for firms benefiting from artificial intelligence investments, as well as hopes the Federal Reserve is done hiking rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 rose 0.5%.
Stocks rose after the core personal consumption expenditures index came in exactly as economists forecast at an increase of 0.4% on a monthly basis in January.
Markets had been worried the number could exceed consensus estimates following hotter-than-expected price data earlier this month.
The Dow and the S&P both locked in their best two-month start to the year since 2019. The Nasdaq couldn’t top its 9.5% gain through February to start 2023. All three marked their best start to an election year since 2012.
Treasury yields decline today yet end the month higher as investors pushed out to June the outlook for Fed interest-rate cuts.
U.S. inflation data today met expectations and markets are starting to turn their focus to February employment data due late next week.
January 12-month core PCE price index rose 2.8%, slowing from December's 2.9% pace, but still above the Fed's 2% target.
Following January's higher-than-expected growth in payrolls of 353,000, Capital Economics' Andrew Hunter forecasts a still strong 250,000 reading, while wage growth would continue a downward trend.
Yields on the 10-year Treasury rises 0.286 percentage point in February to 4.251% and the two-year gains 0.417 p.p. to 4.644%.
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Crude futures settle lower, looking for direction as the market ponders the bigger-than-expected 4.2 million-barrel build in U.S. crude stocks and is still guessing as to whether OPEC and its allies will extend their voluntary output cuts in 1Q into the second quarter.
Expectations that the cuts will remain have supported crude this week.
A positive element of the EIA's Wednesday inventories report was a first increase in refinery runs this year, says Mizuho's Robert Yawger.
"We're trying to make do at 81.5%. The rate is always low at this time of year, but that run-rate is beaten down to the ground," he says. "All it does is leave idle barrels on the sidelines getting stuffed into storage."
WTI for April delivery settles down 0.4% at $78.26, but is up 3.2% on the month. April Brent expires at $83.62, off 0.1% on the day and up 2.3% for the month.