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The S&P 500 index reached a new high on Friday. The value of tech companies went up, and investors think the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates this year. The previous high for the standard index was 4,796.56 on January 3, 2022. It was 4,839.81, which was higher than that high.
The previous intraday high for the S&P 500 was set on January 4, 2022, more than two years ago. It was 4,818.62. Earlier in the business day, the index hit an intraday high of 4,832.17.
The information technology area of the S&P 500 index went up by 2.4% on Friday, which is why tech stocks led the trading session gains.
AI company stock prices went through the roof. The share price of Nvidia hit a new all-time high of $594.51, up 4.2%. The share price of Meta Platforms also went up by 2% to $383.45.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average measure also hit a new high. It ended the day at 47,863.83, 1.1% higher than its previous high point.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has been down at the beginning of the year, but it is now up about 1.5% in 2024.
There was a 24% rise in the benchmark index in 2023, and stock prices rose quickly at the end of the year as buyers became more hopeful that the Federal Reserve could control inflation without causing the economy to slow down.
At its last policy meeting in 2023, the Federal Reserve said interest rates would significantly decrease in 2024. This was a big surprise in the Fed’s long-term fight against inflation. Also, the central bank did not raise interest rates for the third time in a row. This suggests that the process of raising rates may be coming to an end.
Treasury yields have gone up after dropping sharply in recent months. The yield on a 10-year note is now close to 4%.
Tradeweb says that the yield on a two-year note is now 4.41%, up from 4.14% last Friday. This high hasn’t been seen since the middle of December 2023.
Investors no longer think that rates will be lowered by March because of what Federal Reserve officials have said this month. The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Raphael Bostic, said on Thursday that he doesn’t think the central bank will lower interest rates until the year’s second half. On Tuesday, Gov. Christopher Waller of the Federal Reserve said that interest rates shouldn’t be reduced immediately.
Still, President of the Chicago Federal Reserve, Austan Goolsbee, praised investors on Friday and hinted that the central bank might think about lowering interest rates if inflation keeps going down.
Goolsbee said on CNBC, “We have to take that into account when figuring out the level of restrictiveness.” “If we continue to make surprising progress faster than was forecast on inflation, then we have to consider that.”