Stocks rise to records with Micron rally; oil prices slide

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A widely followed global stock index and the S&P 500 hit record highs on Thursday after chipmaker Micron Technology’s upbeat forecast, while oil dropped on a report Saudi Arabia plans to dump its unofficial crude price target of $100 a barrel.

Micron’s forecast late Wednesday bolstered optimism about demand for chips used for artificial intelligence computing. Shares of other chipmakers also rose, including Nvidia, which was up 1%.

U.S. Treasury yields gained after data showed that U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly fell in the latest week, leading traders to cut bets that the Federal Reserve will make another 50-basis point cut at its November meeting.

Last week’s rate cut by the U.S. central bank was its first reduction in borrowing costs since 2020.

There’s a lot of focus on the labor market in terms of what the Fed is going to do next,” said Zachary Griffiths, senior investment grade strategist at CreditSights.

Also on Thursday, revised government data showed the U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in 2023. Investors anxiously await Friday’s release of the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 181.03 points, or 0.43%, to 42,096.12, the S&P 500 rose 9.70 points, or 0.17%, to 5,731.99 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 28.44 points, or 0.16%, to 18,111.30.

European shares were up sharply following a rally in Chinese stocks. Driving optimism was an official readout from a meeting of China’s politburo that said China would deploy “necessary fiscal spending” to meet this year’s economic growth target of roughly 5%, acknowledging new problems and raising market expectations for fresh stimulus on top of measures announced this week.

Reuters reported separately that China plans to issue special sovereign bonds worth about 2 trillion yuan ($284 billion) this year primarily to stimulate consumption.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 7.59 points, or 0.90%, to 851.20, and hit a record high earlier. The STOXX 600 index rose 1.13%.

U.S. crude fell 2.31% to $68.06 a barrel and Brent fell to $71.88 per barrel, down 2.15% on the day.

The Financial Times reported Saudi Arabia is preparing to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude as it prepares to increase output.

In Treasuries, the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 2.5 basis points to 3.806%, from 3.781% late on Wednesday.

Traders are now pricing in a 56% probability that the Fed will cut rates by 50 basis points at the conclusion of its Nov. 6-7 meeting, down from 63% before the data, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

The dollar was down in choppy trading after the U.S. data indicated a relatively healthy economy, while the Swiss franc rose after the country’s National Bank cut rates.

The Swiss National Bank cut rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, choosing not to go for a larger 50-bp move that markets had seen as a possibility. It was the SNB’s third such move this year.

Against the Swiss franc, the dollar weakened 0.27% to 0.848.

Elsewhere, policy doves at the European Central Bank are preparing to fight for an interest rate cut next month after a string of weaker-than-expected economic data, a move likely to meet resistance from their more conservative peers, seven sources told Reuters.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.2% to 100.74, with the euro up 0.22% at $1.1157.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.16% to 144.98.

(Additional reporting by Alun John in London and Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Sam Holmes, Andrew Heavens, Hugh Lawson and Sharon Singleton)