Dow closes near 40K as tech rally sets new records

The stock market continued its record-setting rally Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average notably flirting with 40,000 as technology shares made major gains.

The Dow closed with a gain of nearly 270 points, or 0.7 percent, putting it within striking distance of the major milestone at 39,781 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite jumped 0.4 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, on the day.

The microchip sector led the charge, buoying the Dow despite a slump in Apple stock after the Justice Department sued the smartphone giant, alleging the company has hurt competition and consumers, developers and small businesses.

Micron Technology soared 14 percent following stronger-than-expected earnings. The semiconductor sector was up overall, with the Taiwan Semiconductor, VanEck Semiconductor ETF and Marvell Technology surging around 2 percent and Nvidia and Intel up 1 percent.

Apple closed down more than 4 percent, while other tech stocks climbed: Microsoft was up 1 percent, and Meta gained around a half a percentage point.

Reddit also made its market debut Thursday after pricing its initial public offering at $34 a share, on the high end of its expected range, on Wednesday. The popular forum website is the first major social media offering since Pinterest went public in 2019.

The Thursday rally adds to a winning day Wednesday that saw all three indexes close at new highs after the Federal Reserve said it still expects three interest rate cuts this year, even as it left borrowing rates unchanged.

While traders aren’t expecting a rate cut when the Federal Open Market Committee, the panel of Fed officials responsible for setting rates, meets again in May, they have priced in an almost 70 percent chance of a rate cut in June, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Updated at 4:11 p.m.