Fed Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this week that it’s unlikely cuts will begin as soon as traders had been hoping. stock market has surged to record heights.

Hopes for such cuts, which can relax the pressure on the economy and goose investment prices, have been a major reason the U.S. That in turn could mean a longer wait for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates. While the strength is a boon for workers and keeps the risk of a recession at bay, the worry is that it could preserve some upward pressure on inflation. employers hired many more workers last month than economists expected. Stocks felt pressure from much higher yields in the bond market after a report showed U.S. And the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks fell 0.6%.

The Big Tech stocks, which are two of Wall Street’s most influential, also vaulted the Nasdaq composite up by 1.7%.īut the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, rose by a more modest 0.3%, or 134 points.

It’s in a torrid run where it’s climbed in 13 of the last 14 weeks. TOKYO – Big Tech stocks once again carried Wall Street to a record Friday, even though the majority of stocks fell amid worries about the downside of a hot economy.īig gains for Meta Platforms and Amazon helped drive the S&P 500 index up by 1.1% to its latest all-time high.