New York Stocks Rise for Fifth Straight Session on Rate Cut Hopes... Nasdaq Up 0.7%

Dow and S&P 500 Rise Together as Fed Rate Cut Expectations Strengthen

With expectations for a December interest rate cut growing and concerns over the overvaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) related stocks easing somewhat, the New York stock market continued its five-day winning streak on November 28 (local time).

On this day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 47,716.42, up 289.30 points (0.61%) from the previous session. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index rose 36.48 points (0.54%) to close at 6,849.09, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 151.00 points (0.65%) to finish at 23,365.69.

The New York stock market, which was closed the previous day for Thanksgiving, closed earlier than usual at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

Since the beginning of this month, the New York stock market has experienced significant fluctuations due to debates over the overvaluation of AI-related stocks, leading to increased volatility. However, with five consecutive days of gains up to this session, the market has recovered much of its earlier losses.

With the market closing higher on the last trading day of November, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index rose by 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively, for the month. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index did not fully recover to its early-month level.

As of this month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index have both recorded gains for seven consecutive months on a monthly basis.

Meanwhile, due to a cooling system issue at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) data center, futures and options trading was halted for about 10 hours prior to the market opening. However, the impact on the New York stock market was limited.

Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading, commented, "Although trading volume was low, this trading halt could have caused a much bigger shock," adding, "We were lucky this time."

With the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision scheduled for December 9-10, market expectations for a rate cut have grown even stronger.

According to CME FedWatch, as of the close of trading on this day, the interest rate futures market reflected an 87% probability that the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 0.25 percentage points at the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. This is an increase of 16 percentage points from 71% a week ago.