US stocks rally after economy contracts by 0.9%
• The Dow Jones gained 332.04 points, or 1.0%, to close at 32,529.63
US stocks continued their rally on Thursday, following a flurry of upbeat corporate earnings and the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate hike of 0.75 percentage points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 332.04 points, or 1.0%, to close at 32,529.63. The S&P 500 crawled up 48.82 points, or 1.2%, finishing at 4,072.43. The Nasdaq Composite finished with a gain of 130.17 points, or 1.1%, ending at 12,162.59.
Stocks rallied on Thursday following the release of data on second-quarter GDP, which showed that the US economy had contracted by 0.9% between the beginning of April and the end of June.
Stocks hit their highs of the session in the afternoon as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open about the size of the central bank’s rate move at its next meeting in September and noted it would eventually slow the magnitude of rate hikes. Powell said in a press conference that the Fed could hike by 0.75 percentage points again in September, but that it would be dependent on the data.
Market movers
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.680%.
Shares of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) were up 6.1% after the carmaker reported a more than 50% increase in total sales during the second quarter.
Shares of Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) jumped 9.9% after the e-commerce company reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter.
Shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) slid 5.2% after the Facebook parent company reported its first-ever quarterly sales decline.
Also read:
US inflation jumps to 9.1%, highest rate since 1981 as consumer pressures intensify
