S&P 500 enjoys best day since May as traders eagerly embrace Fed chief’s nod toward lower rates

The S&P 500 enjoyed its best day since May on the heels of Fed Chair Jay Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, which fortified traders' expectations that the central bank will resume its rate-cutting campaign next month.

Your Evening Briefing August 22, 2025 S&P 500 enjoys best day since May as traders eagerly embrace Fed chief's nod toward lower rates The S&P 500 enjoyed its best day since May on the heels of Fed Chair Jay Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, which fortified traders' expectations that the central bank will resume its rate-cutting campaign next month. While Powell did not out-and-out commit to a cut in September, he acknowledged that the balance of risks was shifting in a way that "may warrant" less restrictive monetary policy. The benchmark US stock index and Nasdaq 100 rose 1.5% while the Russell 2000 soared 3.9%. Every S&P 500 sector ETF ended positive outside of staples, which was flat. Consumer discretionary led the way up with a 3% jump, its biggest one-day gain since the US-China trade truce on May 12. Airline stocks were big beneficiaries of the risk-on tone, with American Airlines, Delta, United, Southwest, Jetblue, and Alaska all outperforming. Alphabet had a strong session, benefiting from reports that Apple is mulling using its Gemini AI model to power the next generation of Siri and its Waymo unit receiving a permit to test self-driving cars in New York City. Nvidia gained, but far underperformed the average semiconductor stock, amid a report that it's told two suppliers to halt H20 production as Chinese regulators push domestic tech companies to forgo purchasing the processor citing data security concerns. Intel rose 5.6% after President Donald Trump said the US government would take a roughly 10% position in the embattled chipmaker linked to funding received as part of the CHIPS Act. Nio's hot run amid the launch of a new SUV continued, with the Chinese EV maker popping double digits on elevated volumes. Elsewhere in EV-land, Lucid sank after announcing a 1-for-10 reverse stock split, a bid to stave off delisting. Zoom lived up to its name, rising double digits after posting better than expected earnings and hiking its full-year guidance. Over in meme stocks, Opendoor rose nearly 40% as traders enthusiastically embraced the potential for lower interest rates to bolster its business prospects. — Luke Kawa, Markets Editor Walmart is still king of Retail America as Target sales continue to slide The former is now worth about 18x as much as the latter. Read more. Grindr built a wildly successful dating app. Will its push into AI finally get Wall Street's attention? We interview George Arison, CEO of Grindr, to talk about how he's turned around the company since joining in 2022 and where he sees Grindr going in the future.  Read more. $10 billion — that's the minimum amount Meta will be spending to use Google's cloud service over the next six years. As The Information first reported on Thursday, Meta signing a deal with Google Cloud is a big win for Alphabet as it aims to catch up with rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Read more.  ChatGPT has been using Google Search ChatGPT maker OpenAI has been using Google's Search data to compete with it. Ethereum leads broad crypto rally as Powell signals Fed rate cut likely Meanwhile, SharpLink Gaming announced a $1.5 billion stock buyback program, sending shares up. Elon Musk asked Mark Zuckerberg to help buy OpenAI An owner of a social media and AI company asked another owner of a social media and AI company to help buy a third AI company.  Bitcoin ETFs post more than $1 billion in outflows The asset is down about 10% from it's all-time high on August 14. Was this email forwarded to you? Don't miss out on future stories — subscribe to The Wrap and get your daily dose of financial news straight to your inbox.  Craving more insights in your inbox? Subscribe to Chartr and Snacks for quality reads. We care what you think! If you have any feedback or comments, feel free to reply and let us know your thoughts!  Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more Sherwood Terms and Conditions Our Editorial Standards Contact Us Advertise With Us Unsubscribe Privacy Policy