Wall Street ends higher, lifted by Uber, Lyft and Nvidia
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[February 15, 2024] By
Noel Randewich and Johann M Cherian
(Reuters) -Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday as ride-hailing
platforms Lyft and Uber rallied, while Nvidia displaced Alphabet as the
U.S. stock market's third most valuable company.
Nvidia overtook Alphabet's market capitalization ahead of the dominant
AI chipmaker's quarterly results next week, now with a with a stock
market value of $1.825 trillion after its shares rose 2.5%.
Uber surged almost 15% to a record high, boosted by a $7 billion share
buyback plan.
Lyft soared 35% after its profit beat estimates and it said it would
generate positive free cash flow for the first time in 2024.
Helping lift the S&P 500, Meta Platforms and Tesla both gained more than
2%.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.96% to end the session at 5,000.62 points.
The Nasdaq gained 1.30% to 15,859.15 points, while Dow Jones Industrial
Average rose 0.40% to 38,424.27 points.
Super Micro Computer jumped more than 11%, adding to recent AI-related
gains for the server equipment seller. That helped the Russell 200 jump
2.4%, its biggest one-day leap since mid-December.
Wall Street indexes slumped to over one-week lows on Tuesday and the
blue-chip Dow posted its worst day in 11 months, after data showed core
consumer prices in January stayed at nearly double the Fed's 2% target,
forcing investors to reassess their rate cut expectations.
"Regardless of when that first cut is, I think the market should fear
what the Fed fears. What the Fed fears is cutting too soon and having to
raise rates. That would be catastrophic for this rally,” said Jake
Dollarhide, Chief Executive Officer of Longbow Asset Management in
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Wall Street's main indexes bounced back Wednesday (Feb. 14) after a
sharp selloff the prior session as Nvidia eclipsed Alphabet as the
world's fourth most valuable company and shares of Uber and Lyft
soared.
Providing some relief, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said
the path back to the central bank's 2% inflation target would still
be on track even if price increases run a bit hotter-than-expected
over the next few months.
Expectations the Fed will cut interest this year have fueled a rally
on Wall Street in recent months that has sent the S&P 500 to record
highs.
Interest rate futures suggest traders mostly expect the Fed to begin
cutting rates by its June policy meeting, the CME FedWatch tool
showed.
Robinhood Markets rallied 13% following a surprise fourth-quarter
profit.
Crypto stocks Coinbase, Marathon Digital and Riot surged over 13%
each as bitcoin's market value crossed $1 trillion for the first
time since Nov. 21.
Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, nine rose, led by industrials, up
1.67%, followed by a 1.42% gain in communication services.
Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a
3.6-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded
92 new highs and 68 new lows.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru, and
by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Maju
Samuel and Aurora Ellis)
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