Wall Street Enjoys Late-Week Rally On Benign Inflation Data, Dow Jones Eyes Best Session Of 2024, Tech Unwinding Stalls: What's Driving Markets Friday?

After a turbulent week in the markets, the bulls reclaimed dominance on Wall Street during Friday’s session, with indices and sectors trading in positive territory as investors welcomed the latest corporate earnings results and further confirmation of inflation progressing toward the Fed’s 2% target.

In June, the Personal Consumption Expenditure price index – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation – dropped to 2.5% year-on-year, as anticipated, marking the lowest level since February 2021. The core component slightly exceeded expectations, remaining steady at 2.6% annually.

Investors are unwavering in their expectations for a Fed interest rate cut in September, assigning it a 100% probability and factoring in nearly three cumulative rate cuts by year-end.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average led the charge on Friday, with the blue-chip index surging 1.9%, setting the stage for its strongest session this year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rebounded significantly, climbing 1.6%, which halted the tech sector’s decline but wasn’t enough to reverse a negative weekly close.

The Russell 2000, as tracked by the iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM, also posted a solid gain of 1.3%.

Rate-sensitive sectors continued their rally, with homebuilders, as tracked by the SPDR Homebuilders ETF XHB, rising over 3% for the day, reaching all-time highs and marking their third consecutive positive weekly close.

In the bond market, Treasuries rose as yields dipped slightly, especially in longer-dated maturities.

Gold also rallied, increasing by 1%, while oil prices dropped by 1%. Bitcoin BTC/USD rose 2.5%, marking its second consecutive positive session after three negative ones.

Friday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-day %chg
Dow Jones	40,712.07	1.9%
S&P 500	5,483.84	1.6%
Nasdaq 100	19,116.90	1.5%
Russell 2000	2,252.38	1.3%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 1.5% higher to $546.75.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA rose 2% to $407.34.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (ARCA: QQQ) rose 1.5% to $465.21.
• Sector-wise, the Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLI outperformed, up by 2.3%, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE lagged, up 0.5%.

Friday’s Stock Movers

Stocks moving on earnings were:

• 3M Company MMM, up 19%.
• Aon plc AON up 6.4%.
• Avantor Inc. AVTR up 12%.
• Barnes Group Inc. B, down 3%.
• BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. BJRI, down 12%.
• Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. BAH down 10%.
• Boyd Gaming Corporation BYD, up 5.4%.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY, up 9.7%.
• Centene Corp. CNC up 9.8%.
• Charter Communications, Inc. CHTR up 16.2%.
• Colgate-Palmolive Company CL up 3.7%.
• Deckers Outdoor Corporation DECK up 7.9%.
• DexCom, Inc. DXCM down 42%.
• Franklin Resources Inc. BEN up 1.9%.
• Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR flat.
• Mohawk Industries, Inc. MHK up 19%.
• Newell Brands Inc. NWL up 39%.
• Saia Inc. SAIA down 20%.
• SkyWest, Inc. SKYW down 6.5%.
• T. Rowe Price Group TROW down 2.8%.
• VeriSign, Inc. VRSN up 3.3%.

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