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Financial Markets 09/03 15:22
Stocks rose on Wall Street as bond yields eased further and a rally in big
technology companies helped the market recoup its losses from earlier in the
week. The S&P 500 rose 1.1% Thursday, with technology stocks powering much of
the gains. The Dow climbed 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.4%. Nvidia
rose 1.8% after the giant chip company said it would buy the artificial
intelligence platform Hugging Face for $13 billion. Oil prices, which rose
sharply earlier this week, closed little changed. Treasury yields fell in the
bond market.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
Stocks rose Thursday on Wall Street as easing bond yields and a rally in big
technology companies helped the market recoup its losses from earlier in the
week.
The S&P 500 was up 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 603 points,
or 1.1%, as of 3:20 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.5%.
Gains in big technology and communication services stocks led the way
higher. Their large market values tend to give them more influence over the
broader market's direction.
Microsoft rose 3%, Apple gained 0.8% and Meta climbed 3.5%.
Giant chip maker Nvidia, whose high-end chips have emerged as AI's best
building blocks, rose 2.3% after saying it would buy the artificial
intelligence platform Hugging Face for $13 billion.
Markets rose in Europe, but ended mixed in Asia.
Oil prices initially ticked higher as the six-month long U.S. war with Iran
intensified, but ended up little changed.
Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for U.S. bombardments
earlier in the week. The fighting between the U.S. and Iran heated up after the
U.S. hit Iranian rocket launchers Sunday on an island in the Strait of Hormuz,
saying Iran was planning to use them to send mines into the waterway.
The renewed fighting has sent U.S. crude prices sharply higher this week,
though the momentum cooled Thursday. After rising in the early going, the price
of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.1% to settle at $95.52 per
barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude edged up 0.3% to settle at $91.30 a barrel.
Rising oil prices have added to existing inflationary pressures and
exacerbated a bond-market sell-off earlier this week.
But bond yields have shown signs of stabilizing.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, dropped
to 4.76% from 4.79% late Wednesday. It has been rising steadily throughout the
year and was as low as 4.20% at the beginning of 2026.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for
Federal Reserve moves on interest rates, slid to 4.33% from 4.39%. It remains
significantly higher for the year, though, and was as low as 3.50% at the
beginning of 2026.
Traders had their eye on several companies following their latest quarterly
snapshots.
Snowflake jumped 18.3% after its quarterly profit and revenue blew past
analysts' estimates. The company noted that artificial intelligence continues
to be a strong driver for its business.
Other tech companies echoed the theme of strength in AI-related demand, but
that wasn't enough to send their stocks higher.
Broadcom's results beat Wall Street's estimates and the chipmaker forecast
that its AI chip revenue would double in its fiscal year that ends in 2028. But
its stock fell 2.9% after its revenue outlook fell short of expectations.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise also raised its guidance for cloud and AI demand
strength as it reported quarterly results that topped analysts' estimates. But
the company's shares slipped 0.5% on worries about supply constraints and other
concerns.
Elsewhere in the market, Tyson Foods fell 7.4% after the meat company
lowered its guidance for revenue and operating income for its fiscal year,
citing margin compression due to volatile cattle prices amid a severe U.S.
cattle shortage.
And Victoria's Secret slumped 13.4% after its latest quarterly earnings beat
Wall Street estimates, but its revenue fell short of expectations.
In economic news, the Labor Department reported Thursday that more Americans
filed for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs are still rare and
jobless claims remain at historically low levels.
On Friday, the crucial U.S. employment report for August is released. The
previous report for July showed that the jobs market stalled, with employers
cutting positions.
Both inflation and the jobs market have been key focuses for Wall Street and
the Federal Reserve.
The Fed is trying to balance its tasks of supporting employment and taming
inflation. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise interest rates before
the year ends in an effort to cool inflation, which remains well above 3%. The
Fed has a stated goal of cooling inflation to a target of 2%.
The government will release August inflation figures Sept. 11, shortly
before the Fed's policymaking committee's next meeting, which ends on Sept. 16.
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