US stocks jump as Fed keeps rates steady but signals closing in on first cut

Investing.com–The S&P 500 notched its biggest gain since February on Wednesday, as the Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged, though signaled that it that potential cut in September was on the table. 

At 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT), the S&P 500 Futures gained 1.5%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 2.6%, the Dow Jones Futures rose 99 points, or 0.2%. 

Fed gives nod to inflation progress after keeping rates steady 

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday, but acknowledged recent progress on inflation and cooling in the labor market, stoking investor hopes that the central bank could begin cutting rates sooner rather than later.

“We think that the time [for a rate cut] is approaching … if we do get the data that we hope we can, then a reduction in our policy rate could be on the table in September,” Fed chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday in the press conference that followed the policy decision.  

Futures are almost fully pricing for a quarter-point easing in September, with a small chance of a reduction of 50 basis points, and have 66 basis points of easing priced in by Christmas.

AMD leads chip, tech stocks higher offsetting Microsoft stumble

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) gained 5% after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected Q2 results, underpinned by record data center revenue as customers including Meta and Microsoft continued to ramp up orders.  

“The tone on data center GPU was very solid, especially around customer breadth as we think both OCI and META are now ramping strongly alongside MSFT – w/shipments starting shortly to TSLA and very strong momentum with enterprises,” UBS said in a note.

As well AMD results, sentiment on chips were boosted by surge in ASML Holding NV (AS:ASML) ADR (NASDAQ:ASML) after Reuters reported that the dutch chip equipment maker and other allies in Japan and South Korea could likely be excluded from U.S. ban on chipmaking equipment to China. 

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) jumped nearly 13% and Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) jumped 8%.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock cut some losses to fall 1% after its fourth-quarter cloud revenue growth missed expectations. 

While the firm’s overall earnings just edged past estimates for the June quarter, revenue from Azure, the company’s cloud business, grew 29%, missing estimates of 30.2% and also slowing from the 31% rise in the prior quarter. This came even as investment in AI saw capital expenditure surge by $5 billion in the quarter. 

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) becomes the latest of the mega-cap tech giants to release quarterly results this week, after the close.

Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, among other products and services, is expected to report a 20% rise in quarterly revenue.

Starbucks earnings meet expectations, T-Mobile, Match Group surprise on earnings stage

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) stock rose nearly 3% after the coffee chain met expectations for quarterly profit, even as its global sales declined on persistent weakness in consumer spending in its top markets of the U.S. and China.

T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) stock rose 4% after the telecoms giant after the telecoms company raised its full-year forecast for monthly bill-paying phone subscriber additions as more customers opted for its discounted unlimited plans that include streaming perks.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) stock fell more than 14% after the social media service offered a softer-than-expected outlook for its third quarter, despite achieving a record 522 million global monthly active users, marking a 12% increase from the previous year.

Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) stock soared 13% after the online dating service recorded a second-quarter revenue beat and announced plans to lay off about 6% of its staff to cut costs.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)