Optimism that central banks will soon stop hiking interest rates and blowout earnings from the semiconductor giant Nvidia helped stocks to end their worst run since last September. The blue-chip S&P 500 and technology focused Nasdaq indices gained 0.8% and 1.5% respectively.
Markets have spent much of August on the back foot as a raft of stronger than expected economic data reports suggested central banks will need to raise interest rates further. However, business surveys released sequentially on Wednesday indicated that economic activity is already creaking under the strain of previous interest rate hikes.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) surveys, which measure trends in the manufacturing and services sectors, in the Eurozone, UK and US all pointed to weaker business activity from previous months.
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