US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow close at record highs on tech

Applied Therapeutics

29/11/2024 18:03

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      S&P 500 hits record intraday high 
    

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      Nvidia leads tech stocks, retail stocks edge up
    

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      Applied Therapeutics plummets after FDA declines drug
approval
    

  
 (Updates to early market close)
    By Saeed Azhar, Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal
       Nov 29 (Reuters) - 
    The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average notched record
closing highs in a shortened Black Friday session, lifted by
select technology stocks, while retail was in focus as the
holiday shopping season kicked off.
  
        Information technology stocks  .SPLRCT  including Nvidia
 NVDA.O  helped boost the benchmark S&P 500, while the
industrial and financial sectors lifted the blue-chip Dow. 
  
    Investors monitored shoppers' response to deep Black Friday
discounts. Adobe Analytics estimated consumers would spend a
record $10.8 billion in online purchases, up 9.9% from Black
Friday last year.
    Shares of Target  TGT.N , Hasbro  HAS.O  and Macy's  M.N 
rose.
    The S&P 500 rose 0.56% to 6,032.44 points. The Nasdaq gained
0.83% to 19,218.17 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial
Average was up 0.42% at 44,910.65 points.
        S&P 500 index breached its intraday record high of
6,025.42 set on Nov. 26.
    "Retailers do a lot of importing. Inventory levels are very
important to their profitability and ability to kind of control
margins, so they will be one of the industries in the (tariffs)
crossfire," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird. 
    "But so far ... (things are) looking pretty solid for the
Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale."
        Chip stocks rebounded from Wednesday's declines, sending
the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index  .SOX  higher. 
  
        The small-cap Russell 2000 index  .RUT  also rose as
Treasury bond yields retreated further from multi-month highs. 
        Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Wednesday,
with the Nasdaq leading declines, as technology stocks slumped
on Thanksgiving eve on worries the Federal Reserve may be
cautious about rate cuts following stubbornly strong U.S.
inflation data.
    Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election
earlier this month, along with his Republican Party winning the
majority in both houses of Congress, provided the latest boost
to equities.
    Investors were pricing in expectations that Trump's
pro-business policies could spur economic growth and corporate
profits. However, concerns prevailed that they could also stoke
inflation, slow the pace of the Fed's rate cuts and weigh on
global growth.
    Traders expect the U.S. central bank to lower borrowing
costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, but see it
pausing rate cuts in January, the CME Group's FedWatch showed.
    Crypto stocks rose on the back of gains in bitcoin  BTC= ,
boosting MicroStrategy  MSTR.O  and MARA Holdings  MARA.O .    
    Applied Therapeutics  APLT.O  plunged after the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration declined to approve its drug for the
treatment of a rare genetic metabolic disease.
    

 (Reporting by Saeed Azhar in Toronto and Johann M Cherian and
Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Richard
Chang)
 ((johann.mcherian@thomsonreuters.com))