Wall Street rises as Fed minutes put rate cuts in focus, Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestone
Wall Street indexes closed higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve meeting minutes fueled hopes that inflation pressures from President Donald Trump's tariffs would not derail interest rate cuts this year and the tech-heavy Nasdaq led gains as Nvidia briefly reached a $4 trillion valuation.
The minutes for the mid-June meeting showed that most Fed officials said they expect rate cuts will be appropriate later this year, with price shocks from Trump's import taxes expected to be "temporary or modest." However, there was little support for a rate cut at the end of July meeting.
Nvidia, finished higher after it became the world's first company to hit a $4 trillion market value on Wednesday morning, solidifying its position as one of Wall Street's most favored stocks to tap in the ongoing surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies.
Besides Nvidia, other market boosts came from megacap companies including Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com .
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 36.36 points, or 0.58%, to end at 6,261.88 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 189.34 points, or 0.93%, to 20,607.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 214.23 points, or 0.48%, to 44,450.53.
While Wall Street indexes had fallen on trade jitters on Monday, they have steadied since then, with analysts noting that investors have become used to Trump's pattern of saber-rattling on tariffs. And with the deadline for the latest tariffs pushed to August 1, many are betting that negotiations will defuse the trade war.
Source : Reuters
