Apple just hit a new all-time high as slowing inflation powers Big Tech stocks to further gains

• Apple's stock climbed nearly 2% Wednesday to close at an all-time high.
• Slowing inflation and bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts have fueled a Big Tech rally this week.
• Apple is now up 52% year-to-date, which has lifted its market capitalization to $3.08 trillion.

Apple's stock price hit a fresh record Wednesday, as cooling inflation and dovish signals from the Federal Reserve powered Big Tech stocks even higher.

Shares rose 1.7% to close at just under $198, surpassing the previous all-time high the Cupertino, CA-based mega-cap set back in July.

The trading session extended Apple's gains for the year to 2023 and lifted its total market capitalization to $3.08 trillion, according to data from Refinitiv.

Fellow "Magnificent Seven" stocks Microsoft, Google owner Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Facebook parent Meta Platforms, and Tesla all also finished Wednesday in the green, lifted by news of cooling inflation and the Fed signaling for the first time that it plans to cut interest rates in 2024.

Tuesday's Consumer Price Index showed that prices rose at a rate of 3.1% in November for the second straight months of declines, setting the stage for the chair Jerome Powell to signal to the market that the central bank is done raising interest rates at Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

"The question of when will it become appropriate to begin dialing back the amount of policy restraint in place — that begins to come into view, and is clearly a topic of discussion out in the world and also a discussion for us at our meeting today," Powell said. 

Markets are now pricing in that the Fed will slash borrowing costs by around 175 basis points in 2024, according to the CME Group's Fedwatch tool. When interest rates fall, stocks tend to benefit because there's more incentive for investors to move their cash out of savings accounts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed at a record high of over 3,700 points Wednesday after Powell's comments, while the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both climbed by over 1%.