Wall Street Heads for Another Record as Markets Rally Worldwide

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are rising toward another record on Thursday as financial markets around the world rally again.

The S&P 500 was 0.5% higher in morning trading and on track to set an all-time high for the third time this week and the 42nd time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average up 180 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

Tech stocks led the way, as they've been doing for years. Micron Technology jumped 17.1% after the maker of computer memory and storage delivered stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It pointed to sales related to artificial-intelligence technology, where a boom has helped drive some stocks to astounding heights.

Jabil climbed 13.4% after the electronics manufacturer likewise reported stronger profit and revenue than expected. It also announced a plan to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock to plow cash to its shareholders.

Markets were even more jubilant overseas on hopes for more moves by China to prop up the world's second-largest economy. The country's powerful Politburo on Thursday called for intensified efforts as China tries to meet its goals for economic growth, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

That follows a raft of announcements earlier in the week by the country's central bank that had also sent global markets jumping. China's economic growth has been flagging, with particular troubles in its real-estate industry, and Chinese officials appear to be making a more coordinated effort to boost it following earlier piecemeal attempts.

In the United States, meanwhile, more encouraging news came after a round of reports on Thursday suggested the world's largest economy may be doing better than expected.

Fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest signal that layoffs remain relatively low across the economy. A separate report said the overall U.S. economy grew at a 3% annual rate during the spring, as previously estimated. That's a solid rate.

The hope on Wall Street is for a form of financial nirvana where the U.S. economy can hold steady and keep profits for companies strong while the Federal Reserve continues to lower interest rates.

The Fed last week made a drastic turn in how it sets interest rates. It's now lowering rates to make things easier for the U.S. economy after keeping them high for years in hopes of extinguishing high inflation. Lower rates not only make it less expensive to borrow money to buy a house, a car or things on credit cards, they can also give a boost to prices for all kinds of investments.

The fear is that the job market could weaken further as the cumulative effects of all the Fed's past hikes to interest rates show themselves. The Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high for more than a year in hopes of slowing the U.S. economy enough to stifle inflation. U.S. employers have already begun to slow their hiring.

Other central banks around the world are also cutting interest rates after the ebb of inflation, which could aid the global economy. After helping to kickstart the global cuts in rates earlier this year, the Swiss National Bank said Thursday it will trim its main rate again.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding steady at 3.79%, where it was late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which more closely follows expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, rose to 3.61% from 3.56%.

In stock markets abroad, jumps of 4.2% in Hong Kong and 3.6% in Shanghai led the way. Indexes also climbed 2.8% in Japan, 2.2% in France and 1.6% in Germany.

South Korean stocks jumped 2.9%, led by semiconductor maker SK Hynix, which launched production of a new memory chip for artificial intelligence.

Among the few losers in financial markets globally was the price of oil. Crude fell after The Financial Times reported through sources that Saudi Arabia is preparing to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude as it prepares to increase output.

A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 3.1% to $67.56. Brent crude, the international standard, sank 2.6% to $70.97 per barrel.

That helped send Exxon Mobil's stock down 2%, and it was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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