NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Friday, posting a fourth consecutive week in the green as investors continue to bet on an ebb in inflationary pressures and a slowdown in the rise in interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.27%, or 424.38 points, to 33,761.05 points.
The broader S&P-500 gained 72.88 points, or 1.73%, to 4,280.15 points.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced for its part by 267.27 points (+ 2.09%) to 13,047.18 points.
The S&P-500 and the Nasdaq thus posted a fourth positive weekly performance in a row.
In a context of falling inflation, Wall Street notably benefited from the first results of the University of Michigan’s monthly survey on household morale: its confidence index, at 55.1, confirms the rebound that began on last month after its all-time low in June.
The detail of the survey shows in particular an improvement in consumer expectations for inflation, a logical development after the below-expected figures for consumer and producer prices published in recent days.
Import price statistics confirmed this trend with a fall of 1.4% in July, which brings their rise over one year to 8.8% after +10.7% in June.
These signs of moderating inflation favor a downward revision of the Federal Reserve’s rate hike expectations for the time being: according to the CBOE’s FedWatch barometer, the estimated probability of a rate hike of 75 basis points in September, which exceeded 50% at the start of the week, fell to 42.5%.
In values, the sectoral index of banks signs a sixth consecutive week of increase, driven in particular by JPMorgan Chase (+ 1.65%) and Morgan Stanley (+ 1.61%).
(Report by Herbert Lash and Bansari Mayur Kamdar, French version Tangi Salaün)