On Friday, the S&P 500 rose, led by tech, although investors had to deal with wild swings as U.S. stocks continued to shake off the slump of earlier this week.
The NASDAQ Composite 0.3%, the S&P 500 index climbed 0.3%, and the dow jones Industrial Average fell 6 points, or 0.02%.
As the week draws to a close, Wall Street has few major clues left to trade on and the focus is therefore turning to next week’s key consumer price index inflation data.
The reading will come amid increased belief that U.S. inflation is cooling and should give the Federal Reserve enough confidence to start reducing interest rates from Sept.
The CME Fedwatch tool showed recent recession fears resulted in traders betting that the Fed would cut rates by an outsized 0.5% next month, versus earlier expectations for a 0.25% cut.
On Friday, although there is little due in the way of corporate earnings, several companies released numbers for investors to evaluate after Thursday’s close.
Paramount Global stock was 2% higher after the entertainment company beat Wall Street’s expectations for profit and its streaming unit recorded its first quarterly profit in 3 years. It also announced it would reduce 15% of its U.S. workforce in an attempt to cut costs.
