The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite extended previous day's gains at open on Thursday as bets around rate cuts by the Federal Reserve strengthened.
In the initial minutes of trade, Meta Platform Inc.'s stock jumped 4.12% to $665.20 after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to cut back metaverse spending.
The S&P 500 opened 0.19% or 12.99 points higher at 6,862.71, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.21% or 48.29 points to 23,502.38. Dow Jones opened 0.11% higher or 52.79 points higher at 47,935.69.
As of 10:36 a.m. local time, Nasdaq traded flat at 23,454.35, while the wider index S&P 500 was up marginally by 0.03% to trade at 6,852.93. Dow Jones rose 0.08% to 47,919.01.
Bets on Fed rate cut became stronger after ADP National Employment Report showed job losses and payrolls stumbling by most since 2023. Usually, a weakening job or labour market is a signal to the Federal Reserve to cut repo rates and pump up liquidity in the economy.
The rest of the magnificent seven traded mix, with bellwether Nvidia up 0.62% to $180.84, Amazon.com Inc. down 1.70% to $228.52, and Microsoft Corp. up 0.20% to $478.61; while Tesla Inc. rose 0.52% to $448.40, Google-parent Alphabet fell 1.13% to $315.97, and Apple was down 1.06% to $281.23.
After the US markets opened, spot gold prices traded little changed only 0.06% up at $4,205.50 while crude oil prices rose. West Texas Intermediate traded 0.36% higher at $59.17 a barrel, while Brent crude traded 0.31% higher at $62.79.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed along with the Euro, which traded at $1.1665. The British pound was little changed at $1.3360 and the Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 154.85 per dollar.
Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, fell 1.7% to $92,129.82.
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