Wall Street’s Thursday rally was supported by gains in technology and hopes for easing inflation, which caused the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to rise to all-time highs.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 1.51 percent to 16,273.38 index points, while the broad S&P 500 gained 1.03% to 5,157.36 index points. During the session, both reached all-time highs, and the S&P 500 set a closing record. The Nasdaq was boosted by a gain of roughly 4.5 percent in Nvidia, the artificial intelligence powerhouse, whose shares have climbed more than 12 percent this week.

To settle at 38,791.35 index points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 130.30 points, or 0.34 percent. The S&P 500 was led to that record by information technology and communication services stocks. With a gain of over 3%, Intel emerged as the Dow’s top performer.

Semiconductor maker Broadcom fell 3% in after-hours trading following the release of full-year revenue guidance that met analyst expectations. After the retailer revealed quarterly revenue that fell short of Street projections, Costco’s stock price fell 4%.

The European Central Bank reduced its annual inflation and growth projections on Thursday, which increased investor optimism even though the bank kept key interest rates unchanged. On the front of global inflation, that is encouraging to see.

The U.S. Fed Chief Jerome Powell informed Congress on Wednesday that he anticipates lower interest rates this year, which coincides with the ECB’s announcement. Powell told the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday that although the Fed was not immediately ready to begin cutting, it is not far from having the confidence it needs in inflation to start. However, Apple had a slightly worse day’s end to record its seventh straight losing session.

Traders hope to learn more about the state of the U.S. economy from Friday’s release of the nonfarm payrolls data for February. S. employment market. The Dow Jones survey of economists predicts 198,000 job growth and a 3.7% unemployment rate, which are indicators of a slowing but still strong labor market