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Investors were cheered with a plethora of pleasant surprises Thursday, sparking a widespread rally that saw every sector close well in the green.
Kicking things off was the latest producer price index – a measure of how much suppliers are charging businesses and other customers for their goods – which rose 0.5% last month. This was slower than the 0.7% rise in August and also below the 0.6% increase economists were expecting.
Prices at the producer level tend to seep down to consumers, says Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO. But while she's "grateful for some relief on the price front, we need a few more months of this to signal a turning point."
In other economic news, initial jobless claims last week fell to 293,000 from 329,000 the week prior, marking the lowest level of new applicants for unemployment benefits since March 14, 2020.
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Investors also eyed a fresh batch of corporate earnings reports, with drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA, +7.4%) and insurance giant UnitedHealth Group (UNH, +4.2%) both surging in the wake of this morning's top- and bottom-line beats.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.6% at 34,912, the S&P 500 Index was 1.7% higher at 4,438 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.7% to 14,823.
Other news in the stock market today:
YCharts
The exchange-traded fund industry is buzzing about a potential breakthrough for cryptocurrency ETFs.
There are more than 20 cryptocurrency funds under review at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including some that actually hold Bitcoin, and others that are tied to Bitcoin futures.
Dave Abner, global head of business development at crypto exchange Gemini, notes that the "The price of Bitcoin is rallying on rumors of the potential launch of a Bitcoin futures ETF. While this ETF may be successful at gathering assets over the next year, generally ETF launches do not have short term price impacts on the assets they contain."
But Wall Street is still quite excited about the potential for SEC approval, which would open the door to new forms of Bitcoin exposure that investors simply don't have. Most people who want to invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through traditional brokerage accounts have limited options.
They can buy stocks that are connected to crypto in some way, or they can sort through a hodgepodge of ETFs and other funds that provide varying types of Bitcoin exposure. While many of these funds stick to equities involved in cryptocurrency technology, a few names have more direct exposure to the digital assets, albeit with a few more turns and twists, too.
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