Stocks rebound after Fed sell-off as Intel, Micron jump; Boeing slips on 737 Max output delay
U.S. stocks rebounded Thursday after a Federal Reserve-driven sell-off, with the S&P 500 up more than 1% and Nasdaq up 1.6%, while Intel and Micron surged and Boeing slipped on 737 Max production delays.
The prior session's declines came after central bankers raised interest rates and Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh took a tough line on inflation. Club portfolio director Jeff Marks said the market was worried about the possibility of another rate increase this year. He cautioned against trying to predict future rate moves. "We don't want to necessarily get locked into a second rate hike right away because, as we know, inflation is very dependent on swings in oil," Marks said.
Club stocks Intel and Micron surged nearly 10% and more than 5%, respectively. The gains came despite OpenAI reporting six additional instances of unexpected model behavior over the past six months, on top of the already-disclosed Hugging Face hack. Elsewhere in the AI trade, officials in Loudoun County, Virginia, voted to issue a 12-month pause on data center applications. Jim Cramer has been worried about the political backlash facing data centers. Fellow portfolio names GE Vernova and Eaton are also heavily involved in the data center infrastructure buildout. Jeff Marks noted that a pause could help the companies deal with supply constraints.
Boeing shares were modestly lower, extending Wednesday's 3.7% decline. The drop followed the company's comments at Morgan Stanley's Laguna conference that stabilizing its 737 Max production at 47 planes per month is taking longer than anticipated. Boeing cited issues with wing production but said a fix is in place. Boeing CFO Jay Malave also said free cash flow is less likely to exceed the midpoint of the company's $1 billion to $3 billion outlook. Jeff Marks called Boeing's performance over the last few months "disappointing" and said the stock "tends to be weak in times when oil is rallying, and interest rates are rallying."
The Investing Club noted that Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long INTC, MU, BA, BNY, GEV, and ETN.
Editor's Summary
Stocks rebounded Thursday after a Federal Reserve-driven sell-off, with the S&P 500 up more than 1% and the Nasdaq up 1.6%, helped by lower oil prices and bond yields. Intel and Micron surged even as OpenAI disclosed more unexpected model behavior, while a Virginia county paused data center applications. Boeing fell after saying 737 Max production stabilization is taking longer than expected and free cash flow may not exceed the midpoint of its outlook.