A cooler vibe from the Fed helped stocks. Governor Christopher Waller said his next rate call will be "heavily influenced" by August inflation figures due next week, and that was enough for traders to trim the chance of a September hike. By 12:22 p.m. in New York, the S&P 500 was up 1% and the Nasdaq 100 gained 1.1%, lining up its best day in a week.
Under the hood, nine of 11 S&P 500 sectors were higher, led by consumer discretionary and communication services. Materials slipped and energy was flat. The Cboe Volatility Index stayed below 15, a level that usually does not signal market stress.
AI stayed hot. Nvidia Corp. added 1.3% after agreeing to acquire AI startup Hugging Face in a deal valued at about $13 billion. Snowflake Inc. rallied 21% after beating quarterly estimates and lifting its full-year product revenue outlook, setting up what could be its strongest session since late May. Meta Platforms Inc. rose 4% after unveiling its most powerful AI model so far.
Not everything with a chip inside rallied. Broadcom Inc. fell 4.1% after results and guidance landed below lofty hopes, even as it forecast AI chip revenue to surge during the next two years. NetApp Inc. climbed 3.3% after topping first quarter expectations and raising its full-year forecast; the shares were up nearly 70% through Wednesday's close.
Tesla Inc. jumped 7.1% - poised for its strongest session since late June - with the EV maker set to hold a Cybercab event in Austin. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. dropped 5%, on pace for its biggest decline since late July, after reporting higher sales that still fell short of elevated expectations.
Navellier & Associates' chief investment officer, Louis Navellier, remarked, "It is safe to conclude that the AI data-center boom persists." "As the fall arrives and the weather cools, I expect that the stock market will heat up, since another round of record earnings is expected to be announced."
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Beyond equities, US oil prices were little changed after briefly topping $93, keeping energy shares flat. Crude has whipsawed as the US and Iran have escalated tit-for-tat military strikes in recent days. Fresh data showed initial jobless claims through Aug. 29 roughly matched forecasts, and the US services sector grew in August at the fastest clip in six months on strong demand and livelier business activity.
Friday's employment report lands at 8:30 a.m. Washington time. Economists expect 55,000 jobs added in August, a tally that would be broadly consistent with this year's average pace.
Options data compiled by Citigroup Inc. point to about a 0.7% up or down move for the S&P 500, in line with the average one day change on jobs Fridays over the past year. According to Stuart Kaiser, who leads US equity trading strategy at the bank, the implied move - based on S&P 500 straddle prices as of Tuesday's close - looks too low.
What it means for your money: with implied volatility muted and plenty of single-stock fireworks, the tape is being set by two forces at once - macro headlines that shape the day's range and company news that drives the biggest winners and losers. Keeping an eye on both is how you understand why your portfolio feels calm one second and jumpy the next.
