- U.S. stocks edged higher on Friday after a tough trading day earlier as traders digested new data and corporate profits.
- The producer price index for June came in slightly above expectations, with wholesale prices rising 0.2%.
- Banks including JPMorgan and Citi have kicked off their second-quarter earnings season.
US stocks edged higher on Friday as a new inflation reading fell and big US banks kicked off second-quarter earnings reporting season.
The producer price index, a measure of wholesale price inflation, rose 0.2% last month, beating the expected 0.1%. This came a day after the consumer price index reported a weak 0.1% decrease in June from the previous month.
Commentators said a slight increase in the producer price index would not change the calculation that the Fed will begin cutting interest rates in September, and that price pressures are certainly easing despite the June producer price index increase.
“While Friday’s strong PPI follows a weak CPI on Thursday, the Fed is data dependent and will scrutinize each data point on inflation before deciding whether to cut rates. Even with Friday’s strong PPI, we believe a September rate cut is likely,” said Clark Belin, president and chief investment officer at Bellwether Wealth.
Meanwhile, the big US banks are in the midst of second-quarter earnings season. JPMorgan reported record profits but its shares fell after net interest income fell short of expectations. Wells Fargo said its cost-cutting efforts were not working as expected, sending its shares further down.
Below are U.S. stock indexes as of the start of trading at 9:30 a.m. on Friday.
Here’s something else that’s happening:
Commodities, Bonds and Cryptocurrencies:
- Oil futures rose. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1% to $82.48 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.7% to $86.02 a barrel.
- Gold fell 0.6% to $2,406 an ounce.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.209%.
- Bitcoin fell 1.6% to $57,684.
