PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Friday after the publication of the monthly PCE price index in the United States which showed a more marked slowdown than expected in underlying inflationary pressures.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 122.76 points, or 0.36%, to 33,789.1 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.61% to 4,326.33 points.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.02%, or 135.02 points, to 13,336.30.
An hour before Wall Street opened, the US Department of Commerce indicated that the core PCE inflation index, closely monitored by the Federal Reserve (Fed), had decelerated to 0.1% in August on a month after an increase of 0.2% in July.
Over one year, its progression was reduced to 3.9%, compared to 4.3% in July.
“These are very, very good numbers. Even if the decline is not spectacular, it is going in the right direction,” commented Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.
“I am very optimistic that inflation will continue to fall and the Fed will take that into account in its reasoning on interest rates,” she added.
On the bond market, the yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds fell by more than eight basis points, to 4.5118% and that of two years by around five points, to 5.0227%.
At foreign exchange, the dollar lost 0.32% against a basket of international currencies, while traders are now counting on a status quo on Fed rates for the November and December meetings with respective probabilities of 85% and 67%.
The fall in the greenback and US bond yields benefits technology and growth stocks: Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon and Nvidia each gain a little more than 1%.
In the other compartments, Nike climbed 9.04% after the publication by the sports equipment manufacturer of a profit higher than expectations for the first quarter of its fiscal year. In its wake, Foot Locker and Dick’s Sporting Goods took 2.94% and 2.39% respectively.
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(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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