US stocks surge; Micron earnings, Powell speech in focus By Investing.com

Investing.com– U.S. stocks rose Thursday, boosted by strong earnings from memory chip maker Micron with comments from Fed chief Jerome Powell in focus.

At 05:35 ET (09:35 GMT), the rose 255 points, or 0.6%, the climbed 37 points, or 0.6%, and the gained 200 points, or 1.1%.

The main Wall Street benchmarks remain in sight of record highs after logging strong gains in the wake of a bumper interest rate cut by the Fed earlier this month. 

Powell speech seen key

The focus this week was squarely on more cues from the Fed following last week’s rate cut, with set to speak later Thursday. 

Powell will deliver pre-recorded remarks at the US Treasury Market Conference in New York, according to the Fed’s website.

Several other Fed officials spoke through the week, mostly in support of last week’s 50 basis point cut. But they also warned that rates may not fall as sharply in the coming meetings. 

data- the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge- is due on Friday, and is likely to factor into the central bank’s plans for rates. 

Ahead of this, data showed that U.S. accelerated at an unrevised 3.0% annualized rate in the second quarter, while the number of Americans who have filed  unexpectedly dipped last week, pointing to ongoing resilience in the US labor market.

Micron surges on strong AI-fueled earnings

The tone Thursday has been helped by stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings from Micron (NASDAQ:), with the memory chip maker also offering up a blowout forecast for the current quarter on strong artificial intelligence demand. 

The firm is one of the biggest memory chip makers in the world, and said it was benefiting greatly from robust AI demand, which ramped up sales of its high-bandwidth memory chips. Its stock rose over 18%. 

Elsewhere, food catering firm Aramark Holdings (NYSE:) rallied over 3% on a report that French rival Sodexo (EPA:) was considering a takeover.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) stock rose over 10% after the carrier raised its revenue-per-capacity guidance for the current quarter and announced a new $2.5 billion stock repurchase program. 

Crude slumps on extra supply fears

Oil prices fell Thursday following a report that top exporter Saudi Arabia was set to discard its lofty crude price target as it looks at expanding production. 

By 09:35 ET, the Brent contract dropped 2.9% to $70.78 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures (WTI) traded 3.2% lower at $67.44 per barrel.

The Financial Times reported earlier Thursday that Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, is preparing to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude as it prepares to increase output.

This talk of additional supply meant that the market largely shrugged off the  reporting that U.S. oil inventories fell more-than-expected across the board last week.

(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)