AP – Stocks on Wall Street finished broadly higher on Friday as the market closed out its fourth straight winning month with solid gains.
A late-afternoon rally helped stocks bounce back from a midafternoon slide. The S&P 500 rose one per cent, with about 76 per cent of the stocks in the index notching gains.
The benchmark S&P 500 closed August with a 2.3 per cent gain for the month. It’s now up 18.4 per cent so far this year and is within 0.4 per cent of the all-time high it set in July.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent, setting its fourth all-time high this week.
The Nasdaq composite ended 1.1 per cent higher. Wall Street spent the day mulling over encouraging reports on inflation, consumer spending and income.
The Commerce Department said its personal consumption and expenditures report showed prices rose just 0.2 per cent from June to July, up slightly from the previous month’s 0.1 per cent increase. Compared with a year earlier, inflation was unchanged at 2.5 per cent.
Economists had expected the PCE, which is the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) preferred measure of inflation, would to show that inflation edged up to 2.6 per cent in July. It was as high as 7.1 per cent in the middle of 2022.
The report confirms price increases are cooling, keeping the central bank on track to cut rates for the first time in more than four years at its upcoming meeting next month. The market is betting that the Fed will cut its benchmark rate by a full one per cent by the end of the year.
“Weakening inflation gives the Fed plenty of room to begin cutting rates, while still resilient household spending is the recipe for a soft landing,” said lead macroeconomic strategist at Lazard Asset Management David Alcaly.
Bond yields were mixed in the Treasury market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.92 per cent from 3.86 per cent late on Thursday.
Technology stocks led the market. Marvell Technology climbed 9.2 per cent after its latest quarterly results hit Wall Street’s sales and profit targets. Other chipmakers also rose. Broadcom added 3.8 per cent and Nvidia gained 1.5 per cent.
Dell also beat analysts’ second-quarter forecasts, boosted by record server and networking revenue as companies continue to beef up their artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its shares rose 4.3 per cent.
Mall-based cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty fell four per cent after its sales and profit fell short of expectations.
Ulta also trimmed its guidance below analysts’ forecasts. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed it holds a stake in the company earlier this month.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 56.44 points to 5,648.40. The Dow rose 228.03 points to close at 41,563.08. The Nasdaq gained 197.19 points to 17,713.62.
Mostly solid United States (US) earnings and economic growth updates capped off a month of encouraging reports for the broader economy.
Data from various reports in August have shown that retail sales, employment and consumer confidence remain strong.
Friday’s Commerce Department report also showed that Americans stepped up their spending by a vigorous 0.5 per cent from June to July, up from 0.3 per cent the previous month, and incomes rose 0.3 per cent, faster in July than in the previous month.
The trends have encouraged Wall Street. Still, stocks have historically done poorly in September.
Since 1950, the S&P 500 has finished higher in September only 43 per cent of the time, making it the worst month for stocks, said Chief Technical Strategist for LPL Financial Adam Turnquist.
“During the month, the index tends to trade sideways during the first half, with losses beginning to accumulate into month end,” Turnquist said.
Investors will be looking for clues on the Fed’s next move next Friday, when the government serves up its latest monthly jobs report.
Economists polled by FactSet are expecting the economy added 155,000 jobs in August. That would follow a gain of 114,000 the previous month.
“The payroll data next week is incredibly important,” said Head of Investment Strategy at SoFi Liz Young Thomas.
