A surge upward on the stock market to start the day. I'm David Brancaccio,

and just over four hours will get the verdict from the Federal Reserve on

whether now is the time to start lowering interest rates probably not the

ADP payroll report though for July out today showed growth and hiring has

slowed taking the edge off inflation markets the S&P 500 up 1.2%.

The NASDAQ up 340.

2% now, although strangely,

the Dow is down 12 points with a shift back toward AI optimism after recent weeks of

doubt here's analyst Susan Schmidt likely due to commentary from

management team remember that we've had really big companies

dominate the action of the market and so Microsoft reported last night we've got more

big companies reporting Meta that Facebook reporting today Amazon and Apple reporting earnings this week as well.

But that commentary can shift investor sentiment and Microsoft's commentary

calls about that expenditure that has been on AI, where the management team sees it going,

and reminding investors that there is a return expected in the future.

Also, general, I think comfort from investors that things are going in the right

direction that the Fed will be comfortable signaling a continued interest in

lowering interest rates at some point this year.

Susan is head of public equity at the state of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Microsoft stock is down 2% after its Azure remote computing platform got hacked,

knocking out Outlook and Excel for many customers

yesterday and halting Xbox Live and the Starbucks app the outage lasted for

...