Wall Street indexes notch record-high closes as Intel soars on Nvidia stake

Wall Street’s main indexes posted record-high closes on Thursday, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a quarter-point interest rate cut, while chipmaker Intel rose after Nvidia decided to build a stake in the company.

Intel clinched its biggest daily gain since October 1987, jumping 22.8% after Nvidia said it would invest $5 billion in the struggling U.S. chipmaker. Peer Advanced Micro Devices slipped 0.8%.

Nvidia rose 3.5%, recovering losses from Wednesday when a report said Chinese tech firms might stop buying its chips.

The moves boosted a broader semiconductor index up 3.6%, and also lifted the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 technology sector up 1.36%. Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors gained.

Meanwhile, the small-cap Russell 2000 index notched its first record high close since November, at 2,466 points. Small-cap companies are likely to perform better in a low interest-rate environment.

On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized that the softening jobs market was a priority and indicated more reductions could follow at upcoming policy meetings.

“We are looking for support for economic growth and justification of stretched valuations and the prospect of lower interest rates helps that,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 124.10 points, or 0.27%, to 46,142.42, the S&P 500 gained 31.61 points, or 0.48%, to 6,631.96 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 209.40 points, or 0.94%, to 22,470.73.

The biggest S&P sector decliners were consumer staples and consumer discretionary stocks.

New data showed that the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, but the labor market has softened as both demand for and supply of workers have diminished.

The rate cut is expected to add to Wall Street’s recent rally, boosted by monetary policy easing hopes and a revival of AI-linked stock trading. Investors are pricing in about 44.2 basis points in cuts by end-2025, data compiled by LSEG showed.

Among stocks, CrowdStrike gained 12.8% after at least nine brokerages raised their price target on the stock.

Shares of Darden Restaurants fell 7.7% after the Olive Garden parent reported weak quarterly results.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.87-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 2.5-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 31 new 52-week highs and eight new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 156 new highs and 42 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.30 billion shares, compared with the 16.67 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

“The Fed also raised its inflation forecast, highlighting the delicate balance between setting monetary policy to offset a weaker labor market versus bringing inflation lower,” he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 260.42 points, or 0.57%, to 46,018.32, the S&P 500 lost 6.41 points, or 0.10%, to 6,600.35 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 72.63 points, or 0.32%, to 22,261.33.

Financial stocks like American Express helped boost the Dow.

The Fed’s decision and outlook will test Wall Street’s recent rally, which has been supported by rate-cut expectations and revived enthusiasm around AI-stock-linked trading.

Powell fielded several questions about the Fed’s independence from the executive branch.

On Tuesday, White House economic adviser Stephen Miran was sworn in as a Fed Governor and an appeals court rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempt to sack Governor Lisa Cook.