Stock Market News Today: Tech stocks prop up markets ahead of Apple results (SP500)

Wall Street rose on Thursday, propped up by technology stocks on the back of a rise in chip names. Market participants are looking ahead to quarterly results from Apple (AAPL) after the closing bell and Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report.

Treasurys continued their climb a day after the Federal Reserve and chair Jerome Powell were widely perceived to be much more dovish than expected.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) led the three major averages in afternoon trade, surging 1.29% to 15,806.04 points. The index was given a boost by a ~9% surge in Qualcomm (QCOM). The U.S. chip designer delivered better-than-expected results and guidance, driven by a return to growth for Android smartphones in China. Other chip stocks such as Marvell (MRVL) and Nvidia (NVDA) got a lift.

The blue-chip Dow (DJI) was up 0.78% to 38,199.48 points, while the benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) had also added 0.78% to 5,057.39 points.

Of the 11 S&P sectors, nine were in the green, led by Consumer Discretionary and Technology.

Technology will garner more attention when Apple (AAPL) reports numbers after hours. The bar is low for the iPhone-maker, and its stock hasn’t seen much love from investors this year. Slumping demand and declining sales for iPhones in China, along with a perceived falling behind in the artificial intelligence (AI) race has weighed on sentiment.

Serving as a possible premonition to Apple’s (AAPL) results, shares of its supplier Qorvo (QRVO) slumped on Thursday after its current quarter outlook fell short of estimates, primarily due to a downturn in the smartphone market.

Among other earnings-related moves, e-commerce firm Etsy (ETSY) slumped after its results were hurt by a “challenging consumer environment.”

Ahead of tomorrow’s keenly watched nonfarm payrolls report, traders received further data on the labor market on Thursday, which was a mixed bag. The Challenger report for April showed fewer U.S. job cuts, while the number of Americans filing for initial jobless claims in the past week remained unchanged. Both indicators showed continued resilience in the labor market.

On the other hand, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 0.3% Q/Q rise in nonfarm productivity in Q1 and a 4.7% Q/Q climb in unit labor costs. More notably, unit labor costs rose just 1.8% over the last four quarters, pointing to a downward trend which suggests inflationary pressure from the jobs market is continuing to fall.

The overall economic calendar on Thursday supported the view expressed by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. The central bank held its key policy rate steady, as expected, while chair Powell acknowledged that recent data on prices meant that policymakers had not gained enough confidence that inflation was heading towards their 2% target.

But investors took heart from Powell reiterating his expectation that inflation would eventually slow and that the Fed’s next move was unlikely to be a rate hike. Additionally, the central bank sent another dovish message by announcing an earlier and deeper-than-expected cut in the pace of quantitative tightening.

“The May FOMC meeting was mostly uneventful but dovish overall. While the Committee added a hawkish acknowledgment of the ‘lack of further progress’ on inflation so far this year to its statement, Chair Powell offered a dovish message in his press conference. We have left our forecast unchanged and continue to expect two rate cuts this year in July and November,” Goldman Sachs’ Jan Hatzius said on Wednesday.

Treasury yields were lower on Thursday, as bond buying continued. The longer-end 30-year yield (US30Y) was down 3 basis points to 4.73%, while the 10-year yield (US10Y) was down 6 basis points to 4.58%. The shorter-end more rate-sensitive 2-year yield (US2Y) was down 7 basis points to 4.90%.

See live data on how Treasury yields are doing across the curve at the Seeking Alpha bond page.