Dow pops 300 points as Wall Street rallies a day after big Fed rate cut: Live updates

Stocks rose Thursday as traders digested the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday decision to lower interest rates by a half percentage point.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 380points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 climbed 1.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.9%.

Traders got some validation that the Fed was engineering a soft landing for the economy on Thursday as weekly jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 219,000, which was far below estimates.

Tech stocks rallied as the rate cut spurred investors to return to a risk-on mood. Nvidia and AMD shares popped more than 5% and 4%, respectively. Micron Technology traded more than 2% higher. Other big tech stocks such as Meta and Alphabet advanced 3.3% and 2.2%, respectively.

Stocks leveraged to lower rates spurring the economy also jumped Thursday morning. Financial giant JPMorgan Chase rose 1.5%. Industrial stock Caterpillar and Home Depot gained 3.3% and 1.5%, respectively.

The Fed slashed its overnight lending rate to a range of 4.75% to 5% from 5.25% to 5.5% on Wednesday, which came as a surprise to some investors who criticized the size of this initial cut. This is the first rate reduction delivered by the Fed in four years.

“This Fed cut cycle is setting the stage for markets to be really strong over the next one month or three months,” Fundstrat Global Advisors head of research Tom Lee told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday.

To be sure, Lee noted that he expects uncertainty to rise ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

After seesawing for most of Wednesday afternoon, stocks ultimately closed the session lower. Both the S&P 500 and 30-stock Dow initially rallied to new record highs right after the Fed announced its interest rate cut decision.