Wall Street claws back some of the losses from a weak week
Business
Wall Street claws back some of the losses from a weak week
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Monday and clawing back some of the losses from their worst week in nearly a year and a half.
The S&P 500 was 0.9% higher in early trading and on track to break a four-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 194 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% higher.
Boeing climbed 4% after reaching a tentative deal with its largest union on a new contract that, if ratified, will avoid a strike that threatened to shut down aircraft production by the end of the week. Boeing said 33,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers would get pay raises of 25% over the four-year contract.
Yields also held relatively steady in the bond market following their sharp swings last week, when a highly anticipated update on the U.S. job market came in weak enough to worsen worries about the slowing U.S. economy.
The Federal Reserve has been intentionally pressing the brakes on the economy through high interest rates in order to stifle high inflation. It’s set to start lowering rates later this month, which would ease the pressure on the economy, as it turns its focus toward protecting the job market and avoiding a recession. The question on Wall Street is if the shift in focus away from beating high inflation will prove to be too late.
On Wall Street, Apple’s stock was edging down by 0.1% ahead of an event later in the day where it’s expected unveil its latest iPhone model, the 16. It’s the first model to be tailored specifically for artificial intelligence, with expected improvements to its often dim-witted virtual assistant, Siri.
Palantir Technologies jumped 10.5% in its first trading after S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would add the company to its widely followed S&P 500 index. Dell Technologies rose 5.3%, and Erie Indemnity gained 2.3% after they likewise got a notice of promotion to the index.
Trading in Big Lots was halted after the discount retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it plans to sell its assets and ongoing business operations to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management.
This upcoming week will feature the latest monthly updates on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels. Such reports used to be the most anticipated economic data of each month, but market watchers say they’re now taking the back seat to updates on the job market because of the worries about a possible recession.
Of course, if the inflation reports show an unexpected spike higher in inflation, that could put the Federal Reserve in its worst-case scenario. Lower interest rates could help boost the economy, but they could also give inflation more fuel.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Europe after falling in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5% after the country’s economic growth for the second quarter was revised below expectations.
Chinese stocks racked up losses after worse-than-expected inflation data disappointed investors. Indexes fell 1.4% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai.
