Wall Street gains with rosy outlooks from Micron, Lululemon

STORY: U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday, as upbeat outlooks from Micron Technology and other companies helped ease worries about the economy.

The Dow climbed one percent, the S&P 500 added 1.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped about 1.8 percent.

Memory chip maker Micron Technology’s shares advanced 7-percent after it gave a rosy outlook for 2025, indicating artificial intelligence would boost sales.

Adding to the optimism, Lululemon Athletica jumped after an upbeat annual results forecast.

“Today it looks like and people are just kind of breathing a sigh of relief.”

Scott Ladner is Chief Investment Officer at Horizon Investment.

“Frankly, you know, we have, we have interest rate volatility that's coming down and that's leading to equity volatility that's coming down. It's leading risk managers being able to put more money at work and and and we are having you know. A little bit of. You know, I guess. Some fears about more banks failing are starting. to subside, and that is leading to people just, you know, basically willing to put money back into into this market."

The S&P 500 banks index rose 1.4% to close at its highest level in over a week, the latest hint of calm among bank stocks after regional U.S. lender First Citizens BancShares scooped up the assets of failed peer Silicon Valley Bank earlier in the week.