4:22pm: Record-breaking day
The three major US stock indexes finished Thursday’s session at record highs, lifted by the Fed’s quarter-point cut.
The Nasdaq led the gains, up 0.9% at 22,470 points. The S&P 500 added 0.5% at 6,631 points and the Dow Jones was up 0.3% at 46,142 points.
3:42pm: Proactive news headlines
- EnWave Corp (TSX-V:ENW, OTC:NWVCF) announced that it has entered into an Equipment Purchase Agreement with BranchOut Foods for the sale of a 120kW Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV) dehydration machine.
- American Resources Corp (NASDAQ:AREC) announced that its ReElement Technologies subsidiary has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with POSCO International Corporation.
- Blockmate Ventures Inc (TSX-V:MATE, OTCQB:MATEF) announced that its investee company, Hivello Holdings, has entered into a partnership with Spheron Network to enhance the earning potential of Hivello users while supporting Spheron’s goal of building the world’s largest community-powered data center.
- Standard Uranium Ltd (TSX-V:STND, OTCQB:STTDF) announced that it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Collective Metals (CSE: COMT), in which Collective Metals will be granted the option to acquire a 75% interest in the 4,002-hectare Rocas Project in Saskatchewan’s eastern Athabasca Basin region.
- Medicus Pharma (NASDAQ:MDCX) announced Thursday that it has entered into a financing agreement with Yorkville Advisors Global, through its fund YA II PL, Ltd., raising $8 million in non-dilutive debenture financing.
- Zacatecas Silver Corp. (TSX-V:ZAC, OTC:ZCTSF) reported that it has increased the size of its previously announced private placement financing from 41,666,666 company units to 62,500,000 units, at a price of C$0.06 per unit, for gross proceeds of up to $3.75 million.
- atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI, ETR:9VC) announced that it has been awarded a grant of up to $11.4 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to advance its work on novel therapies for opioid use disorder (OUD).
- HIVE Digital Technologies (TSX-V:HIVE, NASDAQ:HIVE) announced that BUZZ High Performance Computing (BUZZ HPC), its wholly owned subsidiary, has acquired a 7.2-megawatt (MW) data centre site in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
2:32pm: Market movers
- Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD)'s newly announced $5 billion investment in Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC, ETR:INL), alongside a partnership to co-develop custom data center and PC products, is being described by analysts as a transformative moment for Intel and a pivotal step in the global AI race. Shares of both firms moved higher on the news.
- CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) stock popped as investors responded positively to the company’s long-term financial targets and upbeat guidance outlined at its recent Fal.Con 2025 conference.
- Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) shares slid 10% to about $189 in early trading on Thursday after the restaurant chain reported mixed financial results for its first quarter 2026.
- Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (NASDAQ:CBRL) shares moved lower as the restaurant chain warned of lower traffic and reduced revenue for fiscal 2026 following backlash over its abandoned logo rebranding.
12:26pm: Nvidia's Intel investment 'a game-changer'
Nvidia's newly announced $5 billion investment in Intel, alongside a partnership to co-develop custom data center and PC products, is being described by analysts as a transformative moment for Intel and a pivotal step in the global AI race.
Wedush sees the deal as “a game-changer deal for Intel as it now brings them front and center into the AI game,” while Baird noted the collaboration “validates x86 processors as beneficiaries of GPU-generated AI tokens.”
Wedbush analysts framed the move as a long-awaited shift for Intel after years of underperformance. With Nvidia’s backing and recent US government support, “this has been a golden few weeks for Intel after years of pain and frustration,” the firm wrote.
Wedbush added that the deal “further strengthens the US lead in the AI Arms Race against China as Intel now goes from a laggard to a catalyst.”
Baird anaysts struck a more cautious tone, maintaining a Neutral rating on Intel but acknowledging the significance of the deal.
Shares of Intel surged almost 29% on the news to $32, while Nvidia was up 3.4% at $176.
11:37am: Rate cut good for gold and tech
The Federal Reserve’s rate cut this week comes during atypical economic conditions, UBS strategists pointed out, and so investors may not have a playbook for how to react.
In short, history suggests it should be good for gold, tech, some banking stocks, bad for the dollar, which is good for emerging markets.
This month's meeting saw the year's first Fed interest rate cut, but does not signal an impending recession, as cuts often have in the past.
"56% of the time when the Fed has cut rates, we have had a recession,” noted UBS strategist Andrew Garthwaite. "However, we don’t see the classic preconditions for a recession."
He argued that the current environment is atypical, with the only similar historical case being June 2002..
"If the Fed cuts and there is no recession, then 12 months later markets have risen 17% historically, on average," he said, citing data from previous easing cycles.
10:54am: Stocks lifted
Wall Street remained in positive territory on rate cut optimism after the Fed cut rates by 25 basis points and signalled further cuts ahead.
“The apparently unstoppable rally grinds on. Stocks held up well in the wake of last night’s rate cut and have continued to move higher. September seems likely to witness the Dow and the Nikkei 225 crossing the 46,000 threshold for the first time,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
“While the Fed seems evenly split on what might happen next, equity markets at least have chosen to ignore this, confounding expectations of a September selloff.”
9:50am: Mixed open on Wall St as Intel surges
The opening trades on Wall Street have not been quite as positive as the futures market was indicating.
The Dow Jones is down 24 points, almost 0.1%, while the S&P 500 has advanced 0.2% and the Nasdaq 0.5%.
Intel is the top riser among Nasdaq 100 companies, up 27%, while Nvidia is up 2.4%.
Dragging the Dow into the red are falls for Disney, Procter & Gamble and McDonalds, with Microsoft and Amazon both just below flat.
8:15am: Nasdaq tipped to surge higher
US stocks are set to trot higher on Thursday as investors continue to chew over the previous day's Federal Reserve rate cut, while Intel shares are likely to lead the way after a new deal with Nvidia.
Led by a 29% premarket surge for the Santa Clara-based computer component company and a 3% gain for the chip colossus, futures for the Nasdaq were up 1.1%.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.7% and those for the Dow Jones were pointing 0.5% higher.
As part of a new collaboration to develop custom data center and personal computing products, Nvidia will buy a $5 billion stake in Intel, with CEO Jensen Huang saying the partnership would "lay the foundation for the next era of computing".
In other big tech news, Instagram owner Meta Platforms unveiled some more stylish versions of its smart glasses built with Ray Ban and Oakley.
More importantly for markets, analysts, economists and investors were still mulling over the meaning and repercussions of the Fed's 25-basis-point interest rate cut and new 'dot plot' that confirmed FOMC members expect to make two more 25bps cuts this year.
The median indication of FOMC members' expected rate cuts narrowly shifted from 50bps to 75bps of total cuts for 2025, with 2026 and 2027 median dots also 25bps lower at 3.4% and 3.1% respectively.
"This suggested a more dovish Fed reaction function to the evolving balance of risks," said Deutsche Bank macro strategist Jim Reid, with Fed chair Jerome Powell describing the cut as a "risk-management cut".
Powell's tone at the press conference, says market analyst Kenny Polcari at Slatestone, made it clear "he’s still cautious about inflation risk while remaining concerned about the labor market – which puts him and the fed in an awkward position, if they cut they risk rising inflation, if they hold steady, they risk higher unemployment or less job creation."
Neil Wilson at Saxo says it "means higher inflation, and is good for gold and bad for USD and long-dated Treasuries. It's gonna be a more mixed picture for stocks."