Wall Street rebounds following slide

Jumps for Big Tech stocks helped U.S. stock indexes claw back much of their slide from the day before, when worries that interest rates may stay high for a while rocked Wall Street.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% Thursday. The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.7% to set a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down by less than 0.1%.

Apple was the strongest single force pushing the market upward, and Amazon climbed to set a record, topping its prior high set in 2021.

Global growth stronger, despite pitfalls

The head of the International Monetary Fund says strong economic activity in the United States and emerging markets is projected to help drive global growth by about 3% this year. That’s below the annual historic average and a warning sign about potential lackluster performances through the 2020s.

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced the economic projection and longer-term outlook on Thursday. She said that “without a course correction, we are indeed heading for ‘the Tepid Twenties’ — a sluggish and disappointing decade.” 

Protesters blast Texas oil terminal

The Biden administration has approved construction of a deepwater oil export terminal off the Texas coast that would be the largest of its kind in the United States. Environmentalists have called the move a betrayal of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda and say it would lead to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to nearly 90 coal-fired power plants.

The $1.8 billion Sea Port Oil Terminal being developed off Freeport, Texas, will be able to load two supertankers at once, with an export capacity of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.

The project by Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners received a deepwater port license from the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration this week, the final step in a five-year federal review.

Prices rose 2.1%, less than expected

U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, offering more evidence that progress against inflation may have stalled this year and raising doubts about whether and when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates.

The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflationary pressure before it reaches consumers — rose 2.1% last month from March 2023, representing the biggest year-over-year jump since April 2023. Compared to February, though, wholesale prices were up just 0.2%, down from a 0.6% gain in February.

— Bulletin wire reports