Tech stocks led the markets higher on Thursday as investors hunting for interest-rate clues shifted focus to the coming US jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose roughly 0.4%, coming off three losing days in a row for the blue-chip index. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) put on 0.7%, while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) popped about 0.8%, with both gauges building on slight closing gains.
The market is shaking off stocks’ rough start to the second quarter after Chair Jerome Powell soothed concerns the Federal Reserve would lose its nerve for making rate cuts.
Recent signs of acceleration in the economy raised the odds of further rate hikes — a so-called “no landing.” By sticking to the same tune — that the Fed will cut rates this year, but will choose its moment given inflation’s bumpy path downward — Powell appears to have put the debate to rest for…
