NEW YORK: The main US stock indexes rose on Friday as a pullback in oil prices offered relief, setting stocks on course to end a rough week on a positive note though data showed consumer price inflation accelerated in August.
Dell jumped over 11percent to hit a record high. Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose nearly 10percent and HP gained about 7percent, after strong results from Oracle.
The gains ease some pressure at a time when fluctuating rate expectations, the intensifying Middle East conflict and elevated Treasury yields have weighed on equities.
“After several days of defensive positioning, today’s move looks like a regression to the mean. The market may have been in a temporary oversold condition, and we’re now seeing some of that unwind,” said Andre Bakhos, managing member at Ingenium Analytics.
The Consumer Price Index increased 0.4percent last month after edging up 0.1percent in July. In the 12 months through August, consumer inflation advanced 3.4percent, in line with July’s gains.
“Today’s numbers are not enough to make investors run for the exits,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, noting that Thursday’s declines could have been overdone.
The report followed Thursday’s slightly hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index reading. Traders see an 87percent chance of a hike at the Fed’s next meeting, compared with nearly 70percent before the CPI, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
“We believe that the Federal Reserve needs to respond to these in the near term or risk a repeat of the high inflation of the 1970s, which would represent yet another failure of discretionary monetary policy,” according to Said Haidar, founder of Haidar Capital Management.
At 11:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 530.49 points, or 1.02percent, to 52,593.73; the S&P 500 gained 79.68 points, or 1.05percent, to 7,671.38; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 318.32 points, or 1.22percent, to 26,400.04.
Still, the Dow was on course for its steepest weekly decline since March. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were also set to end two-week winning streaks. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, fell 2.08 points to 15.76. Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes traded in the green, with the communication services and technology indexes leading gains. Brent crude futures slipped about 3percent but were still above USD104 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 3percent but were close to the USD100-a-barrel mark. Meanwhile, Oracle inched up nearly 1percent after topping estimates for quarterly results late Thursday, which reassured shareholders that its AI investments were generating returns.
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