The United States (US) stock market remained strong on Thursday as investors turned their attention to Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium later this week on interest rate cuts.
In Wednesday trading, the Dow was up 0.14%, the S&P 500 was up 0.42% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.57%, with nine of the 11 S&P sectors ending higher.
The move came as the latest Fed minutes revealed that a majority of members agreed that if the latest data comes in as expected, it may be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.
The market is now seen to have reacted early to the interest rate cut in September, favoring a 25 basis point reduction.
Futures markets expected a 10.3% increase on strong second-quarter earnings, but Macy's fell 12.9% after lowering its forecast.
In extended trade, Snowflake fell 8% despite strong quarterly results, while Urban Outfitters fell 8.4% due to disappointing same-store sales.
