Waller Eases Rate Hike Fears, Sends US Stocks Soaring

US stocks closed higher on Thursday, September 4, after US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller expressed his willingness to hold interest rates steady if data shows inflationary pressures are easing.

This sentiment boost led investors to moderate their rate hike bets, with the likelihood of a hike at the Fed's September meeting dropping from 63.2% to 50.4%, according to CME's FedWatch tool.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 624.16 points, or 1.18%, to 53,686.11, while the S&P 500 gained 81.11 points, or 1.06%, to 7,747.71.

Nvidia led the gains among AI-related megacap stocks, rising 1.8% after announcing its acquisition of Hugging Face for $12.9 billion.