Dow Jones Today: Stock Indexes Poised to Open at All-Time Highs as Fed Signals More Rate Cuts Ahead; Nvidia to Invest $5B in Intel

Major stock indexes didn’t respond strongly after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates yesterday. That does not look like that will be the case today.

U.S. stock futures rose Thursday on indications the Fed might issue two more rate cuts this year, with all three major indexes poised to open at all-time highs. Futures associated with the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.6% after the blue-chip index hit an intraday record-high and closed 0.6% higher Wednesday. Nasdaq futures were up 1.1% after ending 0.3% lower yesterday, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.8% after the benchmark index slipped 0.1% in the prior session.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which affects borrowing costs on a variety of consumer and commercial loans, was down slightly at 4.06%.

Gold futures were slightly lower at $3,700 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, edged higher to $64.20 a barrel. Bitcoin rose nearly 1.5% to around $117,300. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, ticked higher to 96.98 but hit its lowest level since early 2022 Wednesday.

Intel (INTC) shares soared 25% in premarket trading after Nvidia (NVDA) said it would invest $5 billion into its struggling rival chipmaker to co-develop data centers and PC products. Nvidia stock gained 2%.

Elsewhere in corporate news, Meta Platforms (META) shares advanced modestly after it unveiled its latest smartglasses; shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and PayPal (PYPL) gained about 1% and 2%, respectively, after the companies announced a partnership for AI shopping; Cracker Barrel (CBRL) stock sank 8% after the restaurant chain issued a weak outlook following a failed rebranding; and StubHub (STUB) shares slipped a further 2% after dropping more than 6% in their debut yesterday.