The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied during the entire session and finished firmly in the green Thursday, powered by strength in tech, industrial and financial stocks, as Wall Street looked past signs of lingering consumer price inflation stoked by global tariffs. Small caps did even better. Meanwhile, Tesla broke out during the waning minutes of the regular session on the stock market today.
Major stock indexes struck a bullish note in unison with the Dow industrials. But the Nasdaq composite's gain of 0.7%, the Nasdaq 100's 0.6% hop higher, and the S&P 500's 0.9% lift could not match the 1.4% rise of the blue-chip index. Ending the day 617 points higher, the Dow surpassed the 46,000 level and finished at 46,108, a new all-time closing high.
The Dow transports rallied 1.4%, while defensive stocks lagged, with Dow utilities edging up 0.4%. But on a positive note, the utility average on Wednesday retook its rising 50-day moving average.
Volume was more than 10% higher vs. the same time Wednesday on the Nasdaq exchange. On the New York Stock Exchange, volume increased nearly 2%, according to preliminary figures. Advancers beat decliners nearly 5-to-1 on the NYSE and roughly 3-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The Russell 2000 outperformed all three major indexes, up 1.8%. Surpassing the 2,400 mark, the Russell ended Thursday at 2,421 and claimed its highest close since December. It's up 8.5% since Jan. 1, compared with a 12% year-to-date gain by the benchmark S&P 500, which finished the day at 6,587.
Adobe Jumps After Hours On Earnings
In stocks, Adobe ran as much as 8% higher on earnings during after-hours trading. Go to IBD's Technology News section for details on the report.
3:41 p.m. ET
Tesla Stock Rolls Ahead
The electric-vehicle and battery innovator rolled ahead more than 5%, sharply beating major index gains. Looking at a daily chart, Tesla briefly surpassed a 367.71 entry within a three-month base that sits inside a much larger, deeper consolidation.
Volume on Thursday picked up 19% faster than its average over the past 50 sessions.
While Tesla has seen its automotive sales sink in recent quarters, Wall Street bulls are focusing more on the potential growth of new franchises including robotaxis and humanoid robotics, as well as continued profitable growth in the energy storage space.
Sales fell 9% in the first quarter to $19.3 billion and dipped 12% to $22.5 billion in the second quarter. Earnings have dropped year over year for three straight quarters.
The 5% buy zone from 367.71 goes up to 386.10.
Tesla Moves Higher: It's Not About EVs
3:02 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Blackstone Shows Muscle
Earlier in the day, Blackstone was one of a handful of financial firms whose stock showed muscle, while Alibaba joined the breakout train on the stock market today. Meanwhile, a few initial public offerings were set to debut.
IBD's current outlook has remained at a bullish level of 80%-100% recommended exposure since Aug. 22, the day in which Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinted strongly during a speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo., that current economic conditions and the cooling of inflation since the lofty heights of 2021-22 warranted action to ease monetary policy.
Gold Keeps Shimmering, IPOs Heat Up
Gold stocks, meanwhile, continued to shine. They've been leaders for much of the year. Some are notching new highs but also hitting a key IBD sell rule: Take at least partial profits when the gain reaches 20%-25%.
Case in point: Eldorado Gold coasted nearly 3% higher and touched a session high of 27.71. At that price, the global miner showed a 27% profit since the breakout past a well-constructed flat base with a 21.79 buy point.
The Latest IBD Stock Of The Day
Of course, gains from a pivot point in the gold stocks could keep rising. Thus, partial profits could be considered, leaving potential further upside. But like any sector leader, the gold stocks will eventually take a break, correct sharply in price and form new bases.
Meanwhile, the IPO market continued to heat up.
Figure Tech Solutions made a toasty debut. The blockchain technology firm priced 31.5 million shares at 25 and traded as high as 38 in the opening minutes of trading on the Nasdaq.
That's a gain of 52% from the initial offering. Shares were up more than 25% in recent action. Watch for Gemini Space Station, a cryptocurrency investor founded by the Winkelvoss twins, to hit the stock market later in the day.
Klarna, which soared to as high as 57.20 during its maiden voyage Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, fell nearly 6% Thursday. The buy-now-pay-later financier priced its initial offering of 34.3 million shares at $40 a share.
According to MarketSurge, Klarna lost on net 13 cents a share over the past four quarters. Sales grew 21% in the June-ended quarter to $823 million.
1:46 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Positive Internals
Breadth in the stock market today was much more favorable for the bulls following Wednesday's questionable rally day, as IBD's Big Picture detailed.
Data storage, apparel, real estate development, design software, chip equipment, automaker, steel, wood product, and educational software stocks paced the gains with price-weighted gains of 2% to 6%. But prescription drugmakers, managed care, plastics, and medical research and equipment companies also strode solidly ahead.
On the downside, domestic and international oil and gas exploration, gas royalty trusts, and movie stocks fell 1% or more as a group.
Meanwhile, the homepage of MarketSurge revealed a whopping 509 stocks rising in heavy volume while just 70 fell in above-average turnover. This data suggested that institutions and other big hitters in the stock market today are more enthusiastic about accumulating stocks, and less so about dumping shares.
In other financial markets, the 10-year Treasury yield hovered right at the key 4% level, but was far below its spring-to-summer peak of 4.63%. CME FedWatch currently shows that 93% of all futures traders are expecting a cut in the fed funds rate of at least 25 basis points from the current target range of 4.25%-4.5%.
The Federal Reserve will make its interest rate policy decision on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. There's a 7% probability the central bank will shave the cost of money by half a percentage point.
Oil prices dropped hard, as West Texas Intermediate futures fell 2% to around $62.40 a barrel. At the session low, light sweet crude futures plunged to $62.28. Natural gas fell more than 2%, but gold was off only 0.1% at $3,677 per ounce.
Futures: Rally Gains Steam; Tesla Leads Five New Buys
12:34 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Alibaba's Bullish Gain
Alibaba has moved beyond its global e-commerce shopping business to other areas such as cloud computing and grocery retailing.
On Thursday, shares hustled 8% higher and cleared a 148.83 entry point within a six-month consolidation pattern. Alibaba stock is in buy range.
Sales growth has been milquetoast in recent quarters, rising just 9%, 5%, 6% and 3% vs. year-ago levels in the past four quarters. However, Wall Street is anticipating a strong turnaround in profit growth, going from a 13% dip to $7.88 a share in the fiscal 2026 year ending in March to a 28% jump to $10.09 in FY 2027.
On Thursday, the company priced an offering of $3.2 billion in zero coupon convertible senior bonds due 2032. The stock's American Depositary Receipts have a market value of $358 billion among 2.31 billion shares outstanding.
The stock's 89 Relative Strength Rating is highly favorable. This means Alibaba has outperformed 89% of all companies in the IBD database over the past 12 months. In a bullish stock market, strength tends to beget more strength.
11:41 a.m. ET
A Market-Leading Move
Health care diagnostics tech firm Tempus AI and networking technology enabler F5 also made notable breakout moves.
Tempus, which went public in June 2024 at 37, is infamous for its humongous weekly price swings. That said, it recently crossed a 74.83 buy point within a nearly nine-week cup-without-handle base three weeks ago and is making solid upside progress. Shares soared more than 13% in recent action.
Tempus has arguably triggered an alternate buy point at 85.28. Why? The pullback in recent weeks resembles a handle on a much larger, deeper consolidation. From 85.28, the 5% buy zone goes up to 89.54.
The company's net loss shrank to 22 cents a share vs. 31 cents a year earlier as revenue bolted 90% higher to $314.6 million, likely a quarterly best. Thus, its Earnings Per Share and Composite ratings are not excellent, according to IBD Stock Checkup. However, mutual fund ownership is rocketing lately, going from 88 funds owning a piece of Tempus in the third quarter of 2024 to 279 as of June.
Meanwhile, F5 rallied more than 2% and hit a session high of 337.39. It's breaking out of a flat base with a 334 pivot point. F5's Relative Strength Rating is solid at 85 on a scale of 1 to 99.
10:45 a.m. ET
Blackstone Sparks A Breakout
Blackstone jumped more than 4% and rolled past a 181.32 proper buy point in a long cup-with-handle, sparking a breakout. The 5% buy zone from 181.32 goes up to 190.39. So Blackstone remains in buy range.
Besides Blackstone, Wall Street firm and wealth manager and E-Trade brokerage operator Morgan Stanley pushed toward a fourth straight gain, up more than 2%. The stock has made a profit of nearly 18% since gliding past a 133.57 handle entry on a double bottom. Morgan Stanley cleared that buy point in June.
Fund giant BlackRock also climbed more than 2%, showing bullish support at its 10-week moving average and igniting a follow-on buy point. Shares rose more than 2% and made a session high of 1,130.12. The 10-week line is at 1,118.20.
9:47 a.m. ET
Nasdaq-100 Winners, Losers: Micron Jumps
Among the Nasdaq-100 stocks, Synopsys, Micron Technology and Lam Research were early winners on the stock market today. Synopsys stock jumped 8%, as Micron shares rallied 7%. Lam stock climbed around 3% in early trading.
Diamondback Energy and Baker Hughes were the biggest losers in early trading, down 1.5% and 1%, respectively.
9:23 a.m. ET
Dow Jones Movers: Amazon, Microsoft, UnitedHealth
Amazon, Microsoft, and UnitedHealth Group were among the biggest advancers on the blue chip index Thursday morning.
Amazon stock added 0.9%, bouncing back from Wednesday's 3.3% sell-off. Microsoft shares picked up 0.5%, looking to extend a winning streak to four sessions. Also, UnitedHealth rose 1.1%, adding to this week's already lofty gains.
On the downside, 3M and Chevron declined 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.
8:51 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Surprise Inflation Data, Jobless Claims
Early Thursday, the Labor Department said the consumer price index, or CPI, rose 0.4% in August, above estimates that called for a 0.3% monthly increase. The CPI climbed 2.9% year over year, in line with economists' forecasts.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, moved up 0.3% in August with an annual increase of 3.1%. Both met estimates.
Meanwhile, initial jobless claims jumped to 263,000 vs. 237,000 in the previous week. They were expected to fall to 234,000, according to estimates from Econoday.
8:08 a.m. ET
Early Winners: Nvidia, Palantir, Tesla
Nvidia stock moved up 0.6% Thursday, on pace to make it four straight winning sessions. The artificial intelligence giant jumped above its 50-day moving average Wednesday, a new buy trigger.
Palantir Technologies tacked on 0.5% premarket Thursday, looking to add to sharp gains in the last three sessions. Shares bullishly regained their 50-day line, which placed them in a new buying area.
Tesla rallied 1.1% Thursday morning, on pace to extend a win streak to three sessions. The electric-vehicle giant is still trying to move above a 355.39 buy point.
Stock Market Today: CPI Inflation Data
Due at 8:30 a.m. ET is the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, or CPI. The CPI is expected to rise 0.3% in August and increase to 2.9% year over year.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, is anticipated to climb 0.3%, with an annual increase of 3.1%, according to Econoday estimates.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department's initial jobless claims are also due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Claims are expected to fall to 234,000 vs. 237,000 in the previous week.
Be sure to follow Scott Lehtonen on X at @IBD_SLehtonen for more on growth stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the stock market today.
