The biggest gains, however, tend to come after the Fed begins cutting rates following a stock market panic. Following the first Fed rate cut in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, the S&P 500 was up over 27% in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, following the rate cut after the Sept. 11, 2001, market crash, the S&P was nearly 21% higher a year later.

Shortly after market open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3% to a new record of 42,105, the S&P 500 rose 1.6% to its new all-time high of 5,713 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 2.3%, though it remains 4% below its July peak.

The rally was a delayed yet emphatic response to the central bank’s decision Wednesday to cut interest rates by a half percentage point that pushed the S&P 500 to its first reco

Stocks jumped Thursday morning as investors cheered the Federal Reserve’s eye-popping half-point interest rate cut.

The S&P 500 will remain in focus on Thursday after the index closed slightly lower following the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash its benchmark rate by 50 basis points. Monitor these important chart levels.

Wall Street's main indexes slipped on Friday as investors held back after a rally in the previous session that was sparked by an oversized interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 and the Dow hovered near their record highs and were on track for weekly gains of over 1%,

The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 surged to all-time highs in the wake of the Federal Reserve's announcement that it was lowering interest rates by half a percentage point.