- U.S. stocks were mostly lower on Friday but rose throughout the week after a weak CPI report for May.
- The Nasdaq 100 closed at a record high, driven by hopes for AI and strong earnings from Broadcom and Adobe.
- Recent Fed comments suggest that interest rate cuts could be imminent if inflation data continues to decline.
U.S. stocks were mostly lower on Friday but rose throughout the week after a cooling inflation report for May and after Apple unveiled its AI ambitions at WWDC.
The S&P 500 hit a record high for four straight days through Thursday, while the Nasdaq 100 closed at a record high every day of the week. AI hopes led tech stocks higher after Broadcom’s earnings surge and Adobe’s strong performance.
The Nasdaq 100 ended the week up more than 3%, while the S&P 500 gained about 1.5%. The Dow Jones, which has little exposure to AI tech trading, ended the week down about 0.5%.
Comments from outgoing Federal Reserve Governor Loretta Mester on Friday raised the possibility that the Fed may be close to cutting interest rates following a string of weak inflation readings.
Both the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index increased less than expected in May, with the Producer Price Index falling to its lowest level in 10 months.
“It’s good to see inflation coming down again, but we need to wait for this to continue for a little while longer,” Mester told CNBC on Friday.
Federal Reserve President Austin Goolsbee said Friday that he too was encouraged by the May consumer price index report.
“There has been real progress in lowering inflation and we need to see more progress before cutting rates,” Goolsby said.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, the market currently rates the Fed at its September FOMC meeting with a 61% chance of cutting interest rates.
As of the close of trading at 4pm on Friday, U.S. stock indexes were as follows:
Here’s something else that happened today:
Commodities, Bonds and Cryptocurrencies:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 0.09% to $78.55 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent crude was down 0.08% to $82.68 a barrel.
- Gold rose 1.39% to $2,350.30 per ounce.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 3 basis points to 4.21%.
- Bitcoin fell 1.99% to $65,417.
