2024-07-26 22:48:24
In an impressive comeback, the Wall Street tried to recover lost ground in a particularly difficult week with investors focused on US inflation data.
THE Dow Jones rose 654.27 points or 1.64% to close at 40,589.34 points, led by the impressive rise of 3M. The industrial giant rallied 23% in its best daily performance since at least 1972. The S&P 500 strengthened by 1.11% to 5,459.10 units, while Nasdaq ended at 17,357.88 points with an increase of 1.03%.
Friday’s move was driven by Thursday’s better-than-expected US GDP data and today’s inflation data, which bolstered views that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates.
Investors continued to shift to cyclical and small-cap stocks with the Russell 2000 index up 1.67%. Industry and raw materials sector stocks are on the rise, up 1.7%.
Some of the major tech names that fell significantly in this week’s sell off, such as Microsoft and Amazon, rallied more than 1% each. Meta Platforms rose about 3% with the IT sector up about 1%.
Data on the personal consumer spending index, which showed a smaller rise in June than in May and was in line with analysts’ forecasts, raised investor expectations for more rate cuts this year in September, November and December.
On a weekly basis, the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, while the Nasdaq lost 2.1% of its value. Both indexes posted consecutive weekly losses for the first time since April. The Dow, however, outperformed, rising 0.8%, marking its fourth consecutive positive week, the first since May.