Stock Market Today: Stock futures rise as Dow tries to keep record streak going
The Dow is looking to notch another record in the wake of the Fed's pivot away from its 'higher for longer' mentality.
U.S. stock futures rose Friday as investor excitement over the Federal Reserve's Wednesday indication that rate cuts might be coming in 2024 continued.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicated an opening-bell increase of 129 points. S&P 500 futures lifted 13 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 58 points.
After closing above 37,000 for the first time on Wednesday, the Dow rose another 158 points to close at a record 37,248. The Dow is on track for a seventh week of gains.
The S&P is also on track for its seventh straight week of gains, which CNBC reported was its longest run since 2017. The index is in the vicinity of its early 2022 highs.
The stock market's rally this week came on the heels of the Fed's pivot away from interest-rate increases toward cuts in 2024, indicating that three rate cuts could be on the way next year. November retail sales, indicating a 0.3% rebound, also came in stronger than anticipated Thursday, a further boost to hopes of a soft landing.
“What we heard from Fed Chair Powell was that it’s not about the economy, it’s not about financial conditions, it’s not about the jobs market. It’s about inflation and inflation have been coming down pretty far and fast,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at Capital, told CNBC Thursday.
As stocks pushed higher this week, bond yields fell; after lifting above 5% in October, the 10-year Treasury yield fell below 4% for the first time since August.
Mortgage rates Thursday also fell below 7% for the first time since August, according to data from Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.95% for the week ending Dec. 14. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.38%.
"It's definitely a good start to a thaw" in the housing market, Redfin's chief economist, Daryl Fairweather, told CNBC Thursday. He added that more improvement on interest rates is still needed for the housing market to truly enter "recovery mode."
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