Stocks rallied broadly on Friday, with significant gains seen across the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq indexes.
The Dow closed above the 40,000-point mark but missed setting a new record high.
Despite the overall positive sentiment, major U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup saw their shares decline, despite reporting robust quarterly earnings.
Friday’s market rebound marked a notable turnaround from the previous session, where the S&P and Nasdaq had slipped following a cooler-than-expected June consumer price index report.
Additionally, the producer price index for June exceeded expectations, indicating continued inflationary pressures in the economy.
Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.187% by the end of the trading day, reflecting some investor caution amid the mixed economic signals.
Donald Trump criticized the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point, calling it a “political maneuver” and suggesting that a smaller reduction would have been more appropriate.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has opted to keep interest rates steady at 0.25%, leading to a sharp rise in the Nikkei index, which jumped over 700 points.
On September 18, the US Federal Reserve made a notable move by cutting interest rates by 50 basis points, marking the start of a new easing cycle.
The Federal Reserve’s recent 50 basis point rate cut left experts divided.