The Dow Jones Industrial Average was on the verge Thursday of reaching 40,000 points for the first time in its 128-year history.
After closing at record highs on Wednesday, all three major stock market indexes rallied on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 321 points, or 0.8%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.7%.
Bullish sentiment was prevalent in both stock and crypto markets on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept investors’ hopes alive for interest rate cuts later this year. The Swiss National Bank’s surprise interest rate cut also boosted stocks.
Let’s take a midday look at markets so far on Thursday:
Micron stock gets another AI bump
After releasing its second-quarter earnings Wednesday, Micron stock rallied more 16% to about $112 per share. The chip-making company saw a surge in demand due the growing popularity of generative artificial intelligence. AI Nvidia stock and Western Digital stock also jumped by 2% and 7.8%, respectively.
And Reddit was set to make its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in a highly anticipated initial public offering — the first by a social media company since Pinterest went public in 2019. Reddit priced its IPO at $34 per share on Wednesday evening, which would value the company at $6.5 billion.
Doge roars on Coinbase’s futures
BlackRock’s announcement of its first tokenized fund on the Ethereum blockchain network also generated excitement in the crypto market.
Top cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged by almost 6% over 24 hours, reaching almost $68,000. Brokerage firm Bernstein has increased its 2024 price target for Bitcoin from $80,000 to $90,000. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap that came under SEC scrutiny on Wednesday, bounced back 4% on Thursday to about $3,500.
And unexpected growth was seen in the popular Dogecoin, which jumped almost 20% in a day after crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it would launch futures trading for Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash starting April 1.