Robinhood, AppLovin jump on S&P 500 inclusion plans
EchoStar jumps on spectrum licenses deal with SpaceX
Barclays, StanChart revise Fed rate cut projections
(Updates with end of trading session)
By Noel Randewich and Purvi Agarwal
Sept 8 (Reuters) – The Nasdaq notched a record high close on Monday, lifted by a rally in Broadcom, while the S&P 500 also gained as investors bet the Federal Reserve will soon lower borrowing costs to shore up economic growth. Investors expect multiple interest rate cuts this year after a troubling nonfarm payrolls report on Friday added to concerns about a weakening U.S. job market. The report, which had dragged down Wall Street in the previous session, has stoked fears of a potential slowdown in the world’s biggest economy.
Traders have fully priced in at least a 25 basis points interest rate cut when the Fed wraps up its two-day policy meeting on September 17, with interest rate futures reflecting a 10% chance of a 50 basis point cut, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
“The focus is on next Wednesday’s Fed rate cut. The market is greedy. It’s already discounted 25 basis points. Now, if people are buying because they expect 50, well, that’s not going to happen,” warned Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Numerous brokerages have revised calls for Fed interest-rate cuts. Barclays now anticipates three cuts of 25 bps each in 2025 compared with two earlier, while Standard Chartered expects a 50-bps trim in September – up from its earlier projection of a 25-bps reduction. Broadcom has extended its rally since the chipmaker said last Thursday it expects sharp artificial intelligence-related revenue growth. Its market capitalization has reached $1.6 trillion, and it is Wall Street’s seventh most valuable company.
Unofficially, the S&P 500 climbed 0.21% to end the session at 6,495.15 points.
The Nasdaq gained 0.45% to 21,798.70 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25% to 45,514.95 points.
This week, investors will keep a close watch on inflation data and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ benchmark payroll revision for further clues on the U.S. economic health and to see if they could strengthen the case for a bigger rate cut.
“The growth scare from the labor market is going to overwhelm even hot inflation because the Fed right now is viewing any tariff-induced inflation as a one-time price increase,” said Jeff Schulze, head of economic and market strategy at Clearbridge Investments. Among other stocks, retail trading platform Robinhood Markets and marketing platform AppLovin jumped, with the companies set to join the S&P 500, effective September 22. EchoStar soared after the telecommunications services firm agreed to sell wireless spectrum licenses to SpaceX for its Starlink satellite network for about $17 billion.
Other telecommunications companies fell, including AT&T , Verizon and T-Mobile. (Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Pooja Desai, Shinjini Ganguli and Richard Chang)
