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S&P 500 posts record closing high

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European shares set record closing high

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Oil prices settle lower; silver, gold rise

(Updates to 4:30 p.m. ET/2030 GMT)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Global stock indexes

reached record highs on Thursday after chipmaker Micron

Technology's ( MU ) upbeat forecast, while oil dropped on a

media report that Saudi Arabia plans to dump its unofficial

crude price target of $100 a barrel.

Silver rose to its highest level in nearly 12 years, with

interest rate cuts by major central banks lifting investment

interest in precious metals.

The S&P 500 registered an all-time closing high, as did the

pan-European STOXX 600 index. MSCI's global stock index

hit an intraday record.

Micron's forecast late on Wednesday bolstered optimism about

demand for chips used for artificial intelligence computing.

Micron's shares rose 14.7% on Thursday, while an index of

semiconductors was up 3.5%.

U.S. Treasury yields edged higher after strong data,

including an unexpected drop in weekly U.S. jobless claims, led

traders to cut bets that the Federal Reserve will make another

50-basis point cut at its November meeting.

Last week's rate cut by the U.S. central bank was its first

reduction in borrowing costs since 2020.

"There's a lot of focus on the labor market in terms of what

the Fed is going to do next," said Zachary Griffiths, senior

investment grade strategist at CreditSights.

Other U.S. reports showed corporate profits increased at a

more robust pace than initially thought in the second quarter,

while gross domestic product grew at an unrevised 3%.

Investors anxiously await Friday's release of the core

personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index - the Fed's

preferred measure of inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 260.36 points,

or 0.62%, to 42,175.11, the S&P 500 increased 23.11

points, or 0.40%, to 5,745.37 and the Nasdaq Composite

was 108.09 points, or 0.60%, higher at 18,190.29.

European shares followed China's market higher. The

pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 1.3% higher at

525.61 points, an all-time closing high. MSCI's gauge of stocks

across the globe rose 7.08 points, or 0.84%, to 850.69 and hit a

record during trading.

In Europe, China-exposed stocks such as luxury goods

companies and miners outperformed.

An official readout from a meeting of China's politburo said

Beijing would deploy "necessary fiscal spending" to meet this

year's economic growth target of roughly 5%, acknowledging new

problems and raising market expectations for fresh stimulus on

top of measures announced this week.

Reuters reported separately that China plans to issue

special sovereign bonds worth about 2 trillion yuan ($284

billion) this year, primarily to stimulate consumption.

In commodities, spot silver was up 0.6% at $32.03 per

ounce as of Thursday afternoon, having hit its highest since

December 2012 at $32.71. Spot gold was up 0.5% at

$2,670.52 per ounce, having hit a record high of $2,685.42

earlier in the day.

U.S. crude fell $2.02 to settle at $67.67 a barrel

and Brent dropped $1.86 to settle at $71.60.

Saudi Arabia is preparing to abandon its unofficial price

target of $100 a barrel for crude as it gets ready to increase

output, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people

familiar with the matter.

In Treasuries, benchmark 10-year yields rose 0.8

basis points to 3.789% and earlier reached 3.821%, the highest

since Sept. 4.

Traders are now pricing in a 51% probability that the

Fed will cut rates by 50 basis points at the conclusion of its

Nov. 6-7 meeting, down from 63% before the most recent data,

according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

The dollar eased after the U.S. data indicated a relatively

healthy economy, while the Swiss franc rose after the country's

central bank cut rates.

The Swiss National Bank cut rates by 25 basis points on

Thursday, choosing not to go for a larger 50-bp move that

markets had seen as a possibility. It was the SNB's third such

move this year.

Against the Swiss franc, the dollar weakened 0.52% to

0.846.

Elsewhere, policy doves at the European Central Bank are

preparing to fight for an interest rate cut next month after a

string of weaker-than-expected economic data, a move likely to

meet resistance from their more conservative peers, seven

sources told Reuters.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

fell 0.42% to 100.52, on track for its sixth drop in seven

sessions, after rising as high as 100.95 earlier in the day. The

euro was up 0.41% at $1.1178.

(Additional reporting by Alun John in London and Karen Brettell

in New York; Editing by Will Dunham, Sharon Singleton and Jamie

Freed)