Stocks rose broadly in morning trading on Wall Street as investors welcomed signals that a standoff in Congress over the federal debt ceiling is closer to a resolution.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 10:16 a.m. Eastern. Roughly 95% of stocks within the benchmark index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 514 points, or 1.5%, to 34,930 and the Nasdaq rose 1.6%.
Markets in Europe and Asia were also broadly higher.
The market snapped out of a days-long bout of volatility late Wednesday after Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell made an offer that would allow an emergency extension of the debt ceiling into December.
The debt ceiling caps the amount of money the federal government can borrow and it needed to be raised by Oct. 18. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned that the the nation would likely face a financial crisis and economic recession if Congress failed to do so.
The debt ceiling debate and the potential for an unprecedented federal default is one of many concerns weighing on the market. Those worries sent the benchmark S&P 500 swinging between daily gains and losses of more than 1% for four days.
Investors received another encouraging piece of news on Thursday after the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week for the first time in four weeks. The labor market has been struggling to recover from the pandemic's initial impact 18 months ago when lockdowns from COVID-19 gutted jobs.
Wall Street will get another snapshot Friday of the job market and its recovery when the Labor Department releases its employment report for September.
Inflation remains a key concern for Wall Street and investors are closely watching the Federal Reserve for any shift in its timetable for raising interest rates. The Fed’s policymaking committee recently signaled the central bank could start raising rates late next year. Analysts have said that the Fed could act sooner than expected if high inflation persists.
Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.55% from 1.52% late Wednesday.
COVID-19 continues to hamper the economic recovery following a surge of cases over the summer. Consumer spending and job growth was stunted and supply chain problems crimped operations in a wide range of industries.
More positive news on fighting off future spikes of the virus came from Pfizer on Thursday. It asked U.S. regulators to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11. The drug developer's stock rose 1.9%.
Google announced it will be updating its privacy restrictions that will limit tracking throughout apps on android devices. The update is similar to Apple's previous update, which ended up causing companies like Meta to lose billions of dollars on the market. Cheddar News was joined by David Trainer, CEO of New Constructs, to discuss the implications of the new privacy updates.
Global semiconductor sales topped $500 billion dollars for the first time in history in 2021. Demand for microchips has been at an all-time high amid a global shortage, but questions still remain about the future of semiconductor production. Cheddar News was joined by Tristan Gerra, Senior Research Analyst at Baird, to answer some of these questions and more.
Stephen Gardner, director at ETF Managers Group, explains why investors shouldn't be rushing to sell vaccine stocks like Moderna or BioNTech even as the spread of COVID-19 slows down.
Keith Smith, President of Direct Digital Holdings, and Mark Walker, CEO of Direct Digital Holdings, discuss the challenges businesses have reaching diverse audiences and the future of programmatic ads.
Compass Inc. reported its Q4 earnings on Wednesday, noting a 31 percent surge in quarterly revenue year over year. The real estate brokerage platform allows agents to promote and market their properties online and saw a 90 percent agent retention rate as well. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin joined Cheddar News to discuss the company's earnings, what ongoing inflation means for the housing market and how they help agents directly. "Let me start by saying my mom is actually a real estate agent, has been the majority of my life. She's a real estate agent today at Compass, and so I built Compass with her in mind," Reffkin said. The goal for an agent is to grow their business and have a better quality of life, more income to support their family, more time to be with their family, and it's not just software. It's a platform of software and services."
While many are excited to watch the final two NFL teams square-off and see which one ultimately takes home the trophy, some, on the other hand, are there for another mian attraction -- the commercials. Companies during this year's game are looking towards the future From electric vehicles, to robots, and crypto-currency, several first-time advertisers are expected to join long-time advertisers like Pepsi, Budweiser and Doritos during the NFL's biggest game. Tom Morton, Global Chief Strategy Officer at R/GA, joined Cheddar News' Big Game Special to discuss.
Americans are expected to spend nearly $24 billion in 2022 for Valentine's Day, and many of those gifts will be in the form of chocolate. John Galloway, interim president of the Americas and CMO of Godiva, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss what chocolate trends the brand is seeing this year, plus the impact of inflation and supply chain issues on the industry.
Darren Schuringa, Founder & CEO, of ASYMmetric ETFs, talks about the strength of the U.S. consumer and discusses how tension between Russia and Ukraine is impacting the energy market.
