By Patricia Kowsmann and David Uberti
Stocks opened Friday higher, putting indexes on track for weekly gains despite another round of firm inflation data.
The Fed's favored inflation metric showed inflation running at 2.7% in the year through March, or 2.8% excluding volatile food and energy prices. The readout follows a GDP report Thursday that pushed Wall Street's dream of Fed rate cuts further out of reach.
Meanwhile, is Big Tech to the rescue once again? Strong earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft landed last night, with the former's shares jumping this morning. Results from oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron also are out.
In morning trading:
-- All three indexes are up, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way. -- Alphabet popped after announcing its first-ever cash dividend. Microsoft also rose on strong artificial intelligence demand. -- Exxon and Chevron fell as their run of record-setting profits appeared to be tapering off. -- Treasury yields slipped. The 10-year yield edged below 4.7% after hitting that level Thursday for the first time this year. -- The yen slid in volatile trading after the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged. -- Copper prices continued their ascent. Brent crude oil futures edged above $88 a barrel.
Write to Patricia Kowsmann at patricia.kowsmann@wsj.com and David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2024 09:51 ET (13:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments