US stocks rally after better inflation data
Wall Street stocks cheered a benign US inflation report on Friday, powering the market to a positive conclusion to the week despite weakness in tech shares in recent days. The report showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index eased to an annual rate of 2.5 percent in June, from 2.6 percent, amounting to progress in a key US Federal Reserve indicator. Futures markets overwhelmingly expect the Fed to cut interest rates in September. The Dow Jones jumped 1.6 percent to 40,589. The S&P 500 advanced 1.1 percent to 5,459, while the Nasdaq climbed 1.0 percent to 17,357. Stocks tumbled on Wednesday, led by a rout in tech shares, which have been seen as overvalued after strong gains in the first half of 2024. Despite the Nasdaq's bounce on Friday, the index finished the week down more than two percent. "We continue to have slowing inflation and solid growth," conditions "consistent with a soft landing thesis," said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones. Kourkafas expects more of a "rotation" away from technology to other sectors in the upcoming period. Among individual companies, 3M shot up around 23 percent after reporting better-than-expected earnings and lifting its full-year profit forecast. Analysts see the industrial heavyweight as well positioned following progress on major litigation issues that have dogged the company. But Biogen dove 7.2 percent after announcing European officials gave a negative reading on a new Alzheimer's disease treatment. Biogen and partner Eisai said they would seek a reexamination of the decision. DexCom, which supplies glucose monitoring systems for diabetes, plunged more than 40 percent after lowering its sales forecast. (AFP)