Stock Market Today: Stocks edge higher into quarter-end; Bankman-Fried sentenced

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Martin Baccardax
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U.S. stocks edge higher Thursday trading, while the dollar powered further gains against its global peers, as investors tweaked their near-term interest rate forecasts while eyeing tomorrow's key inflation data release.

Updated at 12:57 PM EDT

That's Gold, Jerry ... Gold!

Spot Gold prices hit a fresh all-time high of $2,225.09 per ounce in early afternoon trading, extending its 2024 advance to around 7.9%, amid renewed bets that sticky inflation pressures won't be undone by a dovish Federal Reserve.

Updated at 11:49 AM EDT

Bankman-Fried sentenced

Judge Lewis Kaplan has sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in the fraud that caused the collapse of FTX.

"The defendant's assertion that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading, it is logically flawed, it is speculative," Kaplan said of Bankman-Fried's claim that customers have been made whole in the windup of the crypto exchange.

"A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets the stolen money is not entitled to a discount on the sentence by using his Las Vegas winnings to pay back what he stole," Kaplan said.

The sentence, while around half of the 50 years prosecutors had called for, is nonetheless much longer than the 6.5 years Bankman-Fried's lawyers had sought.

Updated at 11:17 AM EDT

The hardest word?

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder and CEO of the crypto trading firm FTX, apologized for his role in a fraud that lead to both the collapse of the firm and billions in customer losses.

Speaking in front of Judge Lewis Kaplan during a sentencing hearing in New York, Bankman-Fried said he was "sorry about what happened at every stage" including "things I should have done and said, things I shouldn't have.

Kaplan will sentence Bankman-Fried, 32, for his role in the fraud later this morning.

Updated at 10:07 AM EDT

Confidence in confidence

The University of Michigan's benchmark consumer sentiment survey for the month of March rose to the highest levels since the summer of 2021, while the final readings of one-year and five-year inflation forecasts ticked lower.

The overall survey tally suggests a firming of consumer confidence, despite the year-to-gains in domestic gas prices and stubborn inflation readings, and should support the market's broader forecasts for a soft-landing for the world's biggest economy this year.

Updated at 9:48 AM EDT

Green is the color of spring

Stocks are looking to close out the quarter on a high note, with the S&P 500 rising 4 points, or 0.07%, in the opening minutes of trading to extend the best six-month run in more than a decade.

The Dow is up modestly, as well, while the Nasdaq edged into the green on the back of softer Treasury yields and a 0.6% gain for Nvidia (NVDA) .

Updated at 8:37 AM EDT

Keeps getting better

The Commerce Department's final estimate of fourth quarter GDP came in stronger than expected, with a tally of 3.4% compared to its prior forecast of 3.2%.

A key inflation metric inside the data, the quarterly PCE Price Index, eased to 2%, putting it on a steady +2% pace for the final six months of last year.

At the same time, the Labor Department said new applications for unemployment benefits fell by another 2,000 last week, to 210,000, for the week ending on March 23.

Stock Market Today

Stocks ended higher Wednesday, with the S&P 500 notching another all-time high at the close of trading and extending its first-quarter gain past 10%. Markets digested another massive Treasury bond auction and booked gains for megacap tech stocks.

After-hours comments from Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller, however, could weigh on markets into the Thursday session. He told an event at the New York Economic Club that "there is no rush to cut the policy rate" given elevated levels of inflation.

"It is appropriate to reduce the overall number of rate cuts or push them further into the future in response to the recent data," Waller added, citing the first two months of growth and inflation figures.

Waller's remarks lifted the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its global peers, around 0.32% in overnight trading to 104.639.

Traders also pared bets on a June interest-rate cut to around 60%, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. Benchmark 2-year Treasury note yields rose to 4.625%.

Investors will track three high-profile data releases today, including a final reading of fourth-quarter GDP growth, last estimated at 3.2%, as well as weekly jobless claims, at 8:30 am Eastern.

The University of Michigan's benchmark consumer sentiment survey will be released at 10:00 am Eastern.

Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, the last full session of the first quarter, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a 3 point opening-bell gain.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is up 5.5% for the year, are looking at a 30 point bump while the Nasdaq, which is up 9.25% for the year, is called 10 points lower.

Home Depot (HD) shares were lower, slipping 0.45%, after the home-improvement retailing giant unveiled plans to buy SRS Distribution, a materials supplier focused on professional contractors, for around $18.25 billion.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) , which was recently replaced in the Dow by Amazon (AMZN) , jumped 2.25% after posting stronger-than-expected fiscal-second-quarter sales and adjusted earnings.

In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 was marked 0.25% higher in holiday-thinned trading, which allowed the regional benchmark to reach an all-time high and extend its 2024 gain to around 7.22%.

Britain's FTSE 100, meanwhile, rose 0.28% in London to take its meager quarter-to-date gain to just over 3%.

Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 ended the final session of the quarter — and indeed the country's fiscal year — with a 1.46% decline. But at 40,168.07 points, the benchmark is still up an impressive 44% over the past 12 months.

The regionwide MSCI ex-Japan index, meanwhile, ended 0.26% higher thanks in part to modest gains for stocks in China as the benchmark CSI 300 ended the quarter with a 2.62% gain.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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