Apple and tech stocks lead the way to Wall Street gains

Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Thursday, led by Apple and other tech stocks in light trading, as U.S. unemployment data signaled the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes might be starting to dent labor market strength in its bid to fight rampant inflation running at 40-year highs.

Echo Wang for Reuters:

All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, with communication service and technology as the biggest winners with gains of nearly 3%.

“We’re in the middle of a bit of a regime shift whereby 2022 was all about the Fed and financial conditions,” said Huw Roberts, head of analytics at Quant Insight in London. “In the last couple of weeks… U.S. equities have become more sensitive to economic growth. The call in 2023 is going to be… between a hard and soft landing.”

Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp, and Amazon.com Inc, whose shares have been battered in the past few sessions, each gained more than 2.5%.

The U.S. Labor Department reported an increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week… The CBOE Volatility index, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” slipped to 21.5, signaling reduced investor anxiety.

MacDailyNews Take: Appel shares are currently hovering right around $130 on light volume of 62,527,211 vs. 84,523,561 average.

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