US stock markets posted significant gains on Wednesday. By the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was calculated at 50,009 points, marking a 1.3% increase compared to the previous trading day. Slightly earlier in the session, the broader S&P 500 was up 1.1% with approximately 7,433 points, while the Nasdaq 100 technological index stood at roughly 29,298 points, showing a rise of 1.7%.
Investor sentiment was driven by anticipation surrounding chip manufacturer Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report. The upcoming data is expected to provide crucial insights into the ongoing economic impact of “Artificial Intelligence”. Furthermore, market participants paid close attention to the minutes released by the US central bank, the Federal Reserve. During its last meeting, the majority of participants favored a degree of “tightening monetary policy” should inflation remain permanently above the two-percent target. They agreed that high inflation figures and ongoing instability in the Middle East might necessitate keeping the current monetary policy course unchanged for an extended period.
Regarding global commodities and currencies, the Euro gained slight strength on Wednesday evening, trading at 1.1628 US dollars. Consequently, the US Dollar cost 0.8600 Euros. Gold prices showed notable gains, reaching $4,548 per fine ounce by the evening-a 1.5% jump, equating to an effective price of 125.75 Euros per gram. Conversely, oil prices declined sharply. The North Sea Brent cruded oil futures fell significantly, closing at $105.00 per barrel around 10 PM Central European Time, a drop of 5.6% or 624 cents from the previous day’s close.