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Wall Street extends winning streak to 8 days, the longest of the year
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Wall Street extends winning streak to 8 days, the longest of the year

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose Monday as Wall Street edged closer to record highs after a turbulent summer.

The S&P 500 rose 1 percent, marking its eighth consecutive week of gains. That ended the index’s longest winning streak since November and completed the index’s best week of the year. The index is now back within 1 percent of its all-time high after falling nearly 10 percent below that mark earlier this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 236 points, or 0.6 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.4 percent.

Advanced Micro Devices drove the market after it announced it would acquire ZT Systems, a supplier in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $4.9 billion. The chipmaker’s shares rose 4.5 percent.

Another chipmaker, Nvidia, was the strongest force in the S&P 500, rising 4.4 percent. The company was able to largely make up for the losses it suffered in the summer, triggered by investor concerns that the share price could be driven too high in the wake of their enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.

They helped offset a 4.8 percent decline at Guess? Inc. The company announced that its chief financial officer is resigning to pursue another opportunity. The clothing and accessories company said it has begun a search for a new chief financial officer and has appointed an interim chief.

Overall, the S&P 500 rose 54.00 points to 5,608.25. The Dow gained 236.77 to 40,896.53 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 245.05 to 17,876.77.

Trading was otherwise quiet, including on the bond market. Yields on US government bonds remained relatively stable ahead of what is probably the most important event of the week on the financial markets: the speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday.

The venue for the speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has been the scene of some major Fed policy announcements in the past. This time, expectations are not as high, with almost everyone already expecting the Fed to start cutting interest rates next month.

This would be the first such cut since the Fed began sharply raising interest rates in early 2022, hoping to slow the economy enough to curb inflation, but not enough to trigger a recession. With inflation easing from its peak of over 9% two summers ago, Fed officials have already hinted that rate cuts are imminent. The biggest question is whether the economy just needs the Federal Reserve to release the brakes, or whether it needs further acceleration and deeper cuts.

A surprisingly weak report on U.S. employer hiring last month raised concerns that the Fed has kept interest rates too high for too long. Those worries, coupled with concerns that Nvidia and other influential Big Tech stocks were getting too expensive in the wake of the AI ​​hype and other factors, made for a scary few weeks for markets around the world, including the worst day for the Japanese market since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

But a subsequent pledge from the Bank of Japan on interest rates there helped calm the market. Several recent reports on the US economy also came in better than expected, covering everything from inflation to US retail sales, adding to optimism.

There aren’t many economic reports scheduled for next week. The highlight of the week could be a preliminary report on US business activity, which will be released on Thursday.

More movement is likely to come from corporate earnings reports as the spring reporting season comes to an end. As usual, most companies posted better earnings in the last quarter than analysts expected.

More than 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 have already filed their reports and are on track to deliver nearly 11% year-over-year earnings per share growth, according to FactSet, which would be the best growth since late 2021.

Retail dominates the end of the earnings season and Lowe’s, Ross Stores, Target and TJX will be among those in the spotlight this week.

A report on Friday suggested that U.S. consumers are feeling better than expected about the economy, but there are big concerns about how much they can continue to spend. People at the lower end of the income scale appear to be under particular pressure, as prices remain high across the economy despite moderating inflation.

In their comments on the quarterly reports, CEOs appear to be continuing to “wait and see” in the face of ongoing concerns. However, according to Deutsche Bank strategists led by Parag Thatte, there is also confidence in “a recovery when greater macroeconomic and political clarity emerges.”

In the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell to 3.87% from 3.88% late Friday.

On overseas stock markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8 percent, suffering from the rise in the value of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar. Such fluctuations can reduce the profits of Japanese exporters, and large swings in the value of the yen following a recent interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan were a major factor in the turmoil in markets earlier this month.

This forced hedge funds around the world to abandon a popular trading activity in which they borrowed cheap Japanese yen to invest elsewhere.

On Monday, however, movements on other stock markets outside Tokyo were calmer. European indices were slightly higher, while Asian indices recorded mixed results.

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