PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Thursday, with financial forecasts from Micron Technology rekindling optimism on artificial intelligence (AI) and in the technology sector in general ahead of speeches from several central bankers.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 0.57%, to 42,138.07 points, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 0.65%, to 5,760.35 points.
The Nasdaq Composite increased by 1.14%, to 18,289.33 points.
Micron Technology soars nearly 18% in early trading after the semiconductor group announced that it expects revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year to be higher than expected. The group emphasizes that demand for memory chips used in computing and AI is robust.
This forecast supports other stocks in the electronic chip sector, with Nvidia up 2.7%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up 3.2% and Broadcom up 2%.
“Tech” giants like Alphabet (+1.3%), Tesla (+1.6%) and Meta (+1.05%) are also sought after.
“Optimism surrounding AI had taken a bit of a backseat in recent weeks. Micron’s strong revenue guidance has somewhat revived the AI sector, reminding the market that AI is still news”, comments Fiona Cincotta, market analyst at City Index.
In addition to Micron’s quarterly accounts, the market also has an eye on monetary policy as expectations of a rate cut in the United States this year are further reinforced, with the probability of further easing in November being 60 .8% compared to 38.8% a week ago, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch barometer.
The Chairman of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, decided not to comment on monetary policy or the economic outlook in his preliminary remarks to the Fed conference in New York. Interventions from other officials of the American central bank such as John Williams, Michael Barr and Neel Kashkari are also expected during the day.
In terms of indicators, growth in the American economy was confirmed at 3.0% in the second quarter at an annualized rate, while unemployment claims in the United States fell slightly last week, without calling into question expectations on interest rate.
The yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds is stable at 3.781%.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
Copyright © 2024 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
