By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 jumped Thursday, as the broader market continued its post-Federal Reserve rally, powered by energy and financials amid easing global growth concerns.

The rose 0.3%, and remained close to its earlier intraday record of 4,492.37. The gained 0.2%, or 71 points, the Nasdaq climbed 0.40%, after hitting an intraday record of 15,027.2.

The positive reaction in the markets suggests that investors “are more comfortable with the possibility of the Fed tapering,” Tyler Ellegard, Investment Analyst at Gradient Investments, told Investing.com in an interview on Thursday. “The Fed has been buying $120 billion of bonds a month, and its balance sheet has exploded … a monthly taper of $15 billion isn’t going to have that big of an effect.”

The Federal Reserve signaled it would begin to taper its bond-buying program at its next meeting in November — should the economic progress continue – and expected to conclude tapering in mid-2022.

Cyclicals stocks led a wider rise as investors eased concerns about China’s possible impact on the global economy due to Evergrande’s collapse. In a move that reassured investors that Beijing would seek to limit the impact of Evergrande’s potential downfall, China’s central bank pumped another 120 billion yuan of liquidity into the banking system overnight Thursday.

Financials were pushed by bank stocks, underpinned by rising Treasury yields — following the Fed’s signal for a November taper – with the 10-year yield nearing 1.4%.

Financials rose higher due to Zions Bancorporation’s (NASDAQ) and SVB Financial’s (NASDAQ:), respectively. Lincoln National (NYSE;) was also a leader.

Higher interest rates boost the return on interest that banks earn from their loan products, or net interest margin – the difference between the interest income generated by banks and the amount of interest paid out to depositors.

Reopening stocks – those that benefit from easing pandemic restrictions – were in rally mode, with airlines and cruise companies in the ascendency.

Carnival, a cruise company (NYSE:), confirmed it was poised to regain over half of its fleet capacity in October. Its stock rose by 4%.

Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 was the latest megacap tech company to see gains. Investors talked up prospects of higher iPhone sales.  

Wedbush wrote in a note, “Based on measuring pre-order activity around the world to its predecessor iPhone 12, we believe that iPhone 13 Pre-Orders are currently running north at 20% ahead of Apple’s launch last Year. An impressive start for this new upgrade cycle out from Cupertino.”

The economic news front saw initial weekly jobless claims rise unexpectedly by 16,000, which was well above expectations of a decline of 15,000. Economists suggest that Hurricane Ida caused the economic weakness. 

Pantheon Macroeconomics stated in a note that claims were helped by “relatively unfriendly seasonals” and by, “we think, Hurricane Ida-triggered claims, but they delayed until after all the chaos subsided.”

Wall Street’s strong gains today followed an earlier week slump, which provided a buying opportunity. Markets are expected to continue their upward trend supported by large amounts of investor dollars.

Ellegard stated that there is $3-to-4-trillion in sidelines money market accounts. Therefore, any correction we receive — whether that’s 3% or 4% — that cash will go back to work. Ellegard stated, “I believe that’s what’s keeping the market up.”