Written by Bhansali Mayur Kamdar and Shristi Achar A.
(Reuters) – Wall Street's main indexes were mostly flat in early trade on Friday as investors took a breather from this week's rally on rising expectations for U.S. interest rate cuts this year.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are on track for a fourth straight week of gains, and the blue-chip Dow is on track for a fifth consecutive week of gains, supported by strong quarterly results and slowing inflation data, supporting the case for a rate cut. I am. Federal Reserve.
On Thursday, all three major indexes hit record highs, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly exceeded the 40,000 mark, but then reversed its rise and closed in the red.
“(The stock market) is just trying to sort of digest last week's economic data,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
“People are now looking at the next trigger. It's probably whether the Fed actually cuts rates. I mean, PCE (personal consumption expenditures) is coming up and if it's lower than expected. , the market will likely continue its upward trend.” ”
Investors will parse comments from Fed officials Christopher Waller and Mary Daly, who are scheduled to speak that day, for further clues about the central bank's monetary policy direction.
Traders currently see a 68% chance of a first rate cut in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Among the S&P 500's 11 sectors, utilities underperformed the rest, declining 0.3%, while energy stocks led the way, rising 0.3%.
As of 9:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.10 points to 39,869.48 and the S&P 500 rose 1.27 points, or 0.02%, to 5,298.37. , the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 10.58 points (0.06%) to 16,708.90.
Advanced Micro Devices rose 3.4% after Microsoft announced plans to offer cloud computing customers a platform of AMD artificial intelligence chips that compete with Nvidia components.
Reddit rose 13% after partnering with OpenAI to provide its content to ChatGPT.
GameStop fell 24.1% after filing for a mixed shelf offering and forecasting a year-over-year decline in first-quarter net sales.
Stocks are still expected to rise significantly each week, along with fellow retail investor darling AMC Entertainment, on excitement over the return to social media of “Rolling Kitty,” a central figure in the 2021 meme stock rally.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.11-to-1 ratio. Declining issues outnumbered advancing issues on the Nasdaq by a 1.13-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 index posted 17 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq posted 47 new highs and 20 new lows.
(Reporting by Bhansali Mayur Kamdar and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun HK and Devika Shamnath)
