The S&P 500 rallied roughly 1% Thursday afternoon, erasing Wednesday's post-Fed-hike losses, as Intel and Micron led gains in a Wall Street portfolio tracked by the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer. Johnson & Johnson also rose after its CFO offered an upbeat growth outlook at a healthcare conference.
Wall Street stayed in rally mode Thursday afternoon, a day after the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate hike in over three years. The S&P 500 climbed about 1%, fully erasing Wednesday afternoon's decline.
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, led by a 2% gain in technology and a 1.6% advance in consumer discretionary. Consumer staples was the lone sector in the red, dragged down by declines in Walmart, Costco and Philip Morris International. The 10-year Treasury yield fell about 6 basis points to 4.95%, slipping below the 5% level, while WTI crude traded near $102 a barrel after touching a session low of $99.10 earlier in the morning.
Intel and Micron lead the portfolio
Strength in AI infrastructure stocks showed up directly in the Investing Club's holdings. Intel gained more than 9%, potentially its best day since early August, with its budding third-party chip manufacturing business seen as key to American national security. Micron added more than 5%, after the Club added to its position on Monday as chip names tumbled on concerns about a slowdown in AI development.
Eaton also advanced after an encouraging presentation at an investor conference Wednesday, where the company said it is tracking toward the high end of its guidance range and that its recently acquired Boyd Thermal unit is running ahead of expectations. Salesforce brought up the rear, down about 2%, after the software vendor didn't update its long-term financial targets at its Dreamforce analyst day, leaving it vulnerable to profit-taking after a big run since its Aug. 26 earnings.
J&J's CFO points to double-digit growth
Johnson & Johnson shares rose about 0.9% after CFO Joe Wolk offered an upbeat outlook at the Deutsche Bank Healthcare Summit. J&J had committed to 5% to 7% sales growth for 2025 to 2030 at its 2023 investor day, but Wolk said Thursday that "you're going to see growth rates that are better than that", pointing to a clear line of sight toward double-digit growth in the coming years. More detail is expected at the company's Dec. 8 investor day.
Wolk also said J&J can keep growing through future patent expirations, citing how the company navigated the loss of exclusivity for Crohn's drug Remicade in 2018 and psoriasis drug Stelara in 2025. He said the company is extremely excited about its Ottava surgical robot, though it isn't expected to be a material revenue contributor for the next few years, and noted its psoriasis drug Icotyde has already reached 17,000 patients five months after launch.
Source: CNBC
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
