S&P 500 eyes new record high amid Fed's Jackson Hole event

US stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) are positive at Thursday's market open, the Nasdaq Composite rising by 0.5% ahead of key interest rate commentary from the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

Seana Smith, Brad Smith, and Jared Blikre report on early morning market moves, emphasizing how the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is within reach of a new all-time record high, leaders in the semiconductor, and whether the US dollar erased any of its significant gains in 2024.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

We're trending towards the opening bell on Wall Street and in Midtown Manhattan.

Wow.

You've got a LS united ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ.

Yeah, go ahead, press that button.

Get this trading session started.

And at the NYSC, you've got gap ringing the opening bell.

They've got a new ticker symbol there used to be GPS.

Now it's more fitting to exactly what the company is and how they spell their name.

Gap, Uh, our, um, EO is gonna be down there later on speaking with the company.

So stick around for that conversation this morning here.

All right, Two great bell ringers, and we've got a great look at what the major averages are doing out of the gate here this morning as we were tracking those the Dow, the S and P 500 the NASDAQ here at the opening cross opening higher across the board right now, you got the NASDAQ up just about a half of a percent.

Jared Blicker is standing by at the big board with a closer look at today's gainers.

Jared, that's right now outperforming.

But I want to take a look at the S and P 500 which is now under 1% away from its record high.

And that record high was in July here.

And it's probably just a fraction of that right there at the Rubicon, so we'll have to see.

I wouldn't be surprised that we get some kind of headline today record high for the S and P 500 but we already have one.

When you consider the equal weighted S and P 500 Index.

That's where every stock gets gets one vote.

We got that three days ago and yesterday, and it looks like we're getting another one pretty soon here.

So I want to take a look at the US Dollar index as well.

That has been falling, although today it's bouncing just a little bit.

But I want to show you a longer term chart.

It came right within this area where you would expect to find support.

Thought it might have bounced a little bit sooner, but nevertheless, this is something to track because a rising dollar is a headwind.

And even on this latest decline, I would note that crude oil was not able to capitalise on that.

If we have some time, I'll circle back around to crude.

But first I've got to get to the sector action.

And today it is tech in the forefront.

Also, health care outperforming industrials was leading pre market.

It's in the middle of the pack now, even materials just briefly flashing green right there.

And I want to check in on the semiconductors because the semiconductors have been coiling for a move potentially higher.

Let me just show you what's going on with NVIDIA.

This is going to be a two month chart, and I'll put some candlesticks so you can see it is also very close to its record high, which was also back in July.

And it had a little bit of a triangle consolidation.

And it's now breaking above that.

A lot of times that will just add to the momentum to the upside.

So wouldn't be surprised to hear about NVIDIA making another record high in the coming days, but not to get too far ahead of ourselves.

I did promise some crude oil action and we are looking at a lot of red on the board.

As I said, the US dollar, uh, really not doing much.

It's up a little bit, But here's crude as the US dollar has been sinking.

That should have been a tail when the opposite was happening.

And so I'm just a little bit concerned about the global demand picture for crude oil.

Um, this would be a logical place for it to reverse 72 but we'll have to see what it does in the coming days.

Guys, we certainly will.

All right, Jared, thanks so much for breaking that down for us.