Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Oct. 8, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to a new record close after strong economic data eased lingering fears of a potential recession. However, the S&P 500 failed to set a new benchmark, even though it had hit an intraday record earlier in the session as the artificial intelligence trade mounted a revival.
The blue-chip index rose 161 points, or 0.37%, to 43,239.05, helped by a 9% gain for Travelers on the back of strong quarterly results. The Nasdaq Composite inched higher on Thursday after getting a boost from semiconductor names, and ultimately added 0.04% to 18,373.61. The S&P 500 closed down 0.02% to 5,841.47.
Chip stocks were the front-runners of Thursday’s action, but gave up some of their gains heading into the market close. AI darling Nvidia ended the day up 0.9% after earlier notching a new all-time high. The stock was boosted after Taiwan Semiconductor, a major supplier for Nvidia and other chip manufacturers, reported strong third-quarter results and raised its revenue forecast for the last three months of the year. Shares of TSMC closed up 9.8%.
Michael Green, chief strategist of Simplify Asset Management, said the rotation back into Big Tech names was simply investors returning to their “normal state of affairs.”
“This feels more like more of the normal, as compared to a broadening or reversal or anything important along those lines,” he told CNBC.
New data released Thursday on the economy also lifted stocks.
September’s retail sales figures showed that consumer spending was still robust, with monthly spending rising 0.4%, while Dow Jones consensus estimates called for 0.3%. Sales excluding autos shot up 0.5%, much hotter than the 0.1% forecast. Jobless claims for the week that ended Oct. 12 were also lower than expected.
However, Green said seasonal adjustments were mostly to thank for the strong retail sales numbers, and that the rally higher in equities could be interpreted as due to investor optimism.
“If you look at this year versus just last year on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, [the numbers] were largely flat. So would I interpret it as significantly stronger data? Not really. But what matters is how the market interprets it, and the market clearly wants to see it in a bullish light right now,” he said.