Stocks looked set to mostly rise on Thursday, with investors betting that weak job openings data has made it all-but-certain that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this month. Alphabet and Apple muscled the S&P 500 higher on Wednesday after a judge ruled that the search giant will be able to keep its Chrome browser business, and continue to pay Apple to make Google the default search engine on iPhones and other devices. Monthly job openings numbers also came in below economists’ expectations, strengthening the case for the Fed to cut rates.
