(Sharecast News) - US stocks jumped on Friday morning, rebounding from a six-week low, after in-line inflation data cemented expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates at its policy meeting next week.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all trading 1.0-1.1% higher in early deals on Wall Street.
US consumer prices rose as expected in August, with the headline inflation rate holding steady at 3.4%, matching July's reading and the consensus forecast. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs that can be volatile month to month, eased to 2.4% in August from 2.5% in July.
Price pressures have eased over recent months since inflation hit a four-year high of 4.2% in May following the energy price spike caused by the war in Iran.
However, the recent escalation in the conflict has sparked another surge in energy prices over the past week, increasing expectations that the Fed may act next week to stop inflation from getting out of control.
Friday's CPI reading now gives investors some clarity regarding the future path of interest-rate policy, at least in the near term, according to analysts. Markets are now pricing in a 90% chance of a 25 basis-point rate hike next week, up from 70% before the data.
"We now expect the Fed to begin a hiking cycle in September after August CPI showed a lack of progress. Forward guidance will still be lacking, but SEP projections [the dot plot] should be hawkish," said TD Securities in a note. "We expect three total hikes in this hiking cycle, with additional hikes in October and January."
Brent crude hit an intraday high of $109.97 a barrel on Thursday, its highest since May, before pulling back 3.2% to $104.17 a barrel as of 1457 BST. The 10-year US Treasury yield also fell 4.2 basis points to 4.929% after reaching a three-year high the previous session.
In other news, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 47.8 in September from 51.7 in August, coming in well below the 51 reading expected by analysts.
Oracle's share price rose on Friday after the software giant reported sharply higher first-quarter profit and revenue, with growth driven by surging demand for its cloud infrastructure business. Oracle reported a 60% year-on-year surge in net profits to $4.76bn in the three months to 31 August, with adjusted earnings of $1.92 a share comfortably ahead of the $1.74 consensus forecast. Revenue rose 30% year-on-year to a record $19.3bn, also beating expectations of $19.14bn.
GameStop was also in demand after its boss Ryan Cohen revealed he bought 1m shares, taking his stake to over $800m at current market prices.
Meanwhile, Kroger was in the red after the retailer's second-quarter numbers underwhelmed, with profits ahead of forecasts but revenues slightly short.
Dow Jones - Risers
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $332.39 4.49%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $823.43 2.57%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $104.28 2.17%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $358.01 1.77%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $496.20 1.72%
Boeing Co. (BA) $209.02 1.59%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $1,031.23 1.43%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $309.45 1.38%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $110.11 1.32%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $246.36 1.32%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $381.77 -1.20%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $29.35 -0.84%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $385.00 -0.66%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $252.85 -0.08%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $144.75 -0.01%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $0.00 0.00%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $0.00 0.00%
Visa Inc. (V) $368.52 0.36%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $214.04 0.38%
S&P 500 - Risers
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $89.67 19.23%
Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) $118.19 13.08%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) $60.17 8.26%
Bath & Body Works, Inc. (BBWI) $18.59 6.70%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $184.43 6.03%
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) $367.22 5.54%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $92.33 5.27%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $192.16 4.95%
HP Inc (HPQ) $34.59 4.81%
United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL) $109.75 4.58%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Coterra Energy Inc. (CTRA) $32.56 -8.62%
Copart Inc. (CPRT) $30.73 -3.74%
Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ) $90.55 -3.62%
Equity Residential (EQR) $63.66 -3.50%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $244.53 -3.32%
Albemarle Corp. (ALB) $118.25 -3.11%
FMC Corp. (FMC) $11.71 -2.98%
Apache Corp. (APA) $44.39 -2.89%
CME Group Inc. (CME) $272.00 -2.21%
LKQ Corporation (LKQ) $23.74 -2.13%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $89.46 19.23%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $184.38 6.03%
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) $368.11 5.54%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $92.44 5.27%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $331.82 4.49%
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $218.18 4.21%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $53.73 3.90%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $140.30 3.77%
Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) $266.92 3.63%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $13.10 3.48%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Qvc Group Inc Series A (QVCGA) $0.34 -13.49%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $129.30 -4.83%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $247.66 -3.32%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $24.38 -2.02%
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $175.26 -1.92%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $382.33 -1.20%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $300.33 -1.15%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $123.28 -1.09%
Idexx Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) $504.17 -0.93%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $87.98 -0.84%
41.52 (0.39%)
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