Bonds Rise After GDP as Trump Eyes New Fed Head: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — The latest reading on the world’s largest economy did little to move markets on Thursday, with stocks rising alongside bonds as the dollar fell after a report that President Donald Trump is considering naming Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s successor well before the end of his term.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, signaling the US equity benchmark will be even closer to its all-time highs. The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.27%. A gauge of the greenback dropped to the lowest since 2022.

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US 1Q GDP Revised to -0.5% Annual Rate, Below All Estimates

The Wall Street Journal said Trump may reveal his pick to run the Fed by September or October. The report follows weeks of lobbying by the president for Powell to lower borrowing costs. The chance of a quarter-point cut in the next meeting rose from zero to 20% and the amount of easing expected by the end of the year jumped from 50 to 62 basis points in a week.

Corporate Highlights:

• Micron Technology Inc., Wall Street’s favorite chipmaker this year, gave an upbeat forecast for the current quarter, helped by demand for artificial intelligence equipment.
• Apple Inc. had its price target cut at JPMorgan Chase & Co. to $230 from $240 on the iPhone 17’s incremental lineup launch.
• Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said his company has automated a significant chunk of work with AI, another example of a firm touting labor-replacing potential of the emerging technology.
• Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s second-quarter earnings declined on a slump in the firm’s investment-banking and capital-markets businesses, with activity muted by economic and geopolitical turmoil.
• Shares in Carrefour SA tumbled to their lowest level since 1993 after analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the French grocer’s first-half results next month may trigger further declines.
• Shell Plc said it has no intention of making a takeover offer for BP Plc, refuting an earlier report that two of Europe’s biggest companies were in active merger talks.
• Short sellers raised their wagers against Worldline SA’s bonds and shares in the days leading up to news reports that the French firm allegedly covered up fraud by some of its customers.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% as of 8:42 a.m. New York time
• Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.1%
• The MSCI World Index rose 0.2%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
• The euro rose 0.4% to $1.1705
• The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.3716
• The Japanese yen rose 0.6% to 144.30 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.5% to $107,296.53
• Ether rose 0.4% to $2,449.14

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.27%
• Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.55%
• Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.47%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
• Spot gold was little changed

 

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