(CercleFinance.com) – The New York Stock Exchange headed higher on Friday morning after a choppy run this week, with investors seemingly willing to shrug off bad news to focus on the rare reasons for satisfaction at the moment.
At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones index advanced 0.4% to 29,330.6 points, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3% to 10,875.8 points.
According to the latest data from the Commerce Department, household spending rose more than expected in August, which offset the announcement of a re-acceleration in inflation.
Consumer spending rose 0.4% last month, while the consensus was for an advance of 0.2%.
This good figure, which testifies to the continued dynamism of consumption, the mainstay of the American economy, made it possible to conceal in part the more worrying indicators relating to inflation.
Because the so-called ‘PCE’ consumer price index excluding food and energy prices, an indicator closely monitored by the Federal Reserve, increased by 4.9% in August, against +4.7% in July, progress well above expectations.
This statistic also pushed the dollar up, as did Treasury yields, by reinforcing the scenario of continued monetary tightening by the Fed, which is very offensive in its fight against rising prices.
On the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasuries stabilized around 3.74% at the end of the morning after falling back to 3.68% at the start of the session.
Financial stocks benefited from the strength of sovereign bond yields to advance by 1.2% and sign the largest sectoral increase of the day.
As for individual values, Nike fell by more than 10% the day after the publication of quarterly results which disappointed investors.
The sporting goods maker said its margins narrowed in the past quarter due to logistics costs, the strong dollar and promotional operations aimed at reducing inventory.
In contrast, the semiconductor group Micron wins nearly 3% after having announced disappointing forecasts, but also a better than expected profit for its past quarter.
The title drags in its wake Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia which respectively take 1.9% and 3%. The semiconductor sector, embodied by the SOX index, rose by 1.1%.
With inflation showing little sign of abating, Wall Street is heading for a sixth week of seven declines as investors continue to gradually get used to the idea of the end of the era of ultra-central banks. generous.
The Dow Jones index is currently down 0.8% over the week as a whole, while the Nasdaq is nibbling at this stage 0.1%.
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