Stock futures climbed Thursday morning after the three major averages closed at new records and the Federal Reserve concluded its latest policy meeting. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 120 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.5%, while Nasdaq 100 futures increased by 0.9%. Semiconductor stock Micron Technology jumped more than 16% in premarket trading on better-than-anticipated earnings. Discount retailer Five Below slipped about 12% after posting disappointing quarterly results. Those moves follow a winning day on Wall Street that sent the three major indexes to new closing highs. Both the Dow and Nasdaq Composite climbed more than 1%, while the S&P 500 added around 0.9% to close above 5,200 for the first time. Those gains came as the Fed reiterated expectations for three cuts to interest rates this year. The central bank kept borrowing costs unchanged at its two-day March policy meeting, which concluded Wednesday. “The sum total of this ‘no news is good news’ press conference is that markets continue to have a green light to run higher,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at the Independent Advisor Alliance. “We aren’t surprised to see the initial reaction from investors to be to push stock prices up and expect that to continue until some new shock hits the system,” he added. “This Fed isn’t going to stand in the way of the bull market.” As of Thursday morning, traders are pricing in a nearly 70% chance that the Fed begins cutting rates in June, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Wall Street will monitor earnings reports from FedEx and Nike after the market close. U.S. Treasury yields fell Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s latest guidance on what the path ahead could look like for interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was down by over 4 basis points at 4.229%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last about 4 basis points lower at 4.566%. Japan stocks closed at fresh all-time highs on Thursday as Asia markets climbed after the Federal Reserve maintained its forecast for three rate cuts this year, while holding rates at 5.25%-5.5% in its latest meeting. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 2.03% higher at 40,815.66, scaling a new all-time high as did the Topix, ending up 1.64% at 2,796.21. South Korea’s Kospi closed 2.41% up at 2,754.86 at its highest level since April 2022, while the small-cap Kosdaq was up 1.44% at 904.29. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended 1.93% higher at 16,863.10, while mainland China’s CSI 300 closed down 0.12% at 3,581.09. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.16% to close at 7,784.9, after flash data from Judo Bank showed that the country’s business activity expanded at a faster pace in March compared with the prior month. Oil prices were slightly lower on Thursday, even after a surprise U.S. crude stock drop and the U.S. Federal Reserve sticking to its outlook on rate cuts. Brent crude futures for May were down 25 cents to $85.70 a barrel. They fell by 1.6% on Wednesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for May were down 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $81.01 a barrel after a fall of about 1.8% in the previous session. Gold prices on Thursday hit record highs for the fifth time this month after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled it would press ahead with three rate cuts in 2024 despite elevated inflation. Spot gold was up 1.1% at $2,209.65 per ounce at after hitting an all-time high of $2,222.39 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures soared 2.4% to $2,212.40.
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