World markets at record peak buoyed by Fed rate cut

World equity markets rose to a fresh new peak on Thursday while the US dollar gained against major peers buoyed by the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut, while the pound dipped slightly after the Bank of England kept rates unchanged.

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On Wall Street, all three indexes were trading higher with the Nasdaq gaining more than 1%. Intel jumped more than 25% after Nvidia said it would invest $5 billion in the struggling US chipmaker. Nvidia's shares were up 2.6% on the session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.45% to 46,227.50, the S&P 500 rose 0.71% to 6,647.52 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.07% to 22,499.15.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.81%. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.40% to 980.25, topping the previous session's record.

"Today's market action is pretty interesting," Sandy Villere, portfolio manager at Villere & Co in New Orleans.

"The Nasdaq is up more than the Russell 2000. I would've thought the Russell 2000 would start to act really well in the face of what looks like two more cuts in 2025. Small caps tend to do quite well and in falling interest rates, but I think with the investment of Nvidia into Intel kinda has the NASDAQ maybe up just from that fundamental standpoint." The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday and its closely watched "dot plot" had pointed to two more rate cuts over its remaining two meetings this year, but only one additional reduction in 2026.