Main U.S. stock indices S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit their highest levels in five months yesterday, while Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the trading session at a slight decline.

Other tech companies were also up 7.3%: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc. gained 7.3%, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained 7.4% and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 3.7%. Inflation appears to have peaked and interest rates should stabilize, removing major headwinds for tech stocks,” deVere Group Chief Executive Officer Nigel Green suggested.

U.S. stock indices futures – what’s influencing current prices?

On Thursday, traders also assessed the results of the Federal Reserve’s meeting and the latest statistical data.

The Fed on Wednesday expectedly raised interest rates by 25 basis points. Now its range is 4.5-4.75% a year – the maximum since 2007.

The head of the US Central Bank Jerome Powell, said at a press conference following the meeting that inflation in the US continues to remain significantly higher than the Fed’s long-term target, which is 2%. He said he does not expect rates to fall in 2023 if economic indicators are in line with the forecasts.

Also affecting US stock index futures is the fact that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time last week fell by 3,000 to 183,000, the Labor Department said. This is the lowest value since April 2022. The results came as a surprise to analysts, who on average had forecast the number of applications to rise to 195,000, according to Bloomberg. Trading Economics respondents had expected an even larger increase, to 200,000.

U.S. labor productivity rose 3 percent in the fourth quarter and labor costs rose 1.1 percent, preliminary data from the Labor Department showed. Experts on average were predicting a 2.4% increase in the former and a 1.5% increase in the latter, Trading Economics reported. MarketWatch respondents had expected a 2.5% and 1.5% increase, respectively.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday decreased 39.02 points (0.11%) to 34053.94. Leading the declines among index components were shares of insurers UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and Travelers Cos. down 5.3% and 1.9%, respectively, as well as Boeing Co (NYSE:BA). – (NYSE:BA.) by 2.5% and Merck.

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 60.55 points (1.47%) to 4,179.76 points on the day. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 384.5 points (3.25 per cent) to 12,200.82 points.

Earlier we reported that strategist Morgan Stanley expects the rally in the US stock market to end.