It was a historic week for Wall Street, with the benchmark S&P 500 (
SP500) taking out and closing above the 5,700 points level for the first time ever. Meanwhile, the blue-chip Dow (
DJI) surpassed and ended above the 42,000 points mark for the first time ever.
The advance was driven by what was undoubtedly the most important event of the week, or for that matter, in recent memory - the Federal Reserve on Wednesday
delivered its first interest rate cut since the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago. And it was a bumper 50 basis point cut at that!
After taking some time to digest Wednesday's developments, market participants took heart from the central bank's willingness to be aggressive in terms of monetary policy and strengthened bets that the Fed would be able to deliver a soft landing. That led to U.S. stocks
ripping gains on Thursday and the S&P (
SP500) and Dow (
DJI) achieving the 5,700 and 42,000 milestone, respectively.
Aside from the Fed, there were some major earnings-related moves as well this week, the most notable of them being a
plunge in global economic bellwether FedEx (
FDX) after the parcel delivery giant missed quarterly estimates and lowered its annual guidance.
For the week, the S&P (
SP500) added +
1.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite (
COMP:IND) swelled
+1.5%. The blue-chip Dow (
DJI) climbed
+1.6%. Read a preview of next week's major events in
Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch.
