The US markets gained some strength during trading on Friday and ended in green terrain, as traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after three days of continuous drubbing. Traders took some encouragement with report from the Labor Department showing just a modest uptick in consumer prices in the month of July. The Labor Department said its consumer price index inched up by 0.1 percent in July after coming in unchanged in June. Economists had expected prices to rise by 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices still crept up by 0.1 percent in July, matching the increases seen in the three previous months. Core prices had also been expected to climb by 0.2 percent. The smaller than expected increase in consumer prices has led to optimism that the Federal Reserve will not be in a hurry to raise interest rates.
However, gains remained capped as the ever-escalating war of words between President Donald Trump and North Korea continued to raise geopolitical concerns. Trump suggested in remarks on Thursday that his comments threatening North Korea with ‘fire and fury’ may not have been tough enough. Trump continued to ramp up the rhetoric with a post on Twitter indicating that the U.S. is prepared to take military action against North Korea.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14.31 points or 0.07 percent to 21,858.32, the Nasdaq rose 39.68 points or 0.64 percent to 6,256.56, while the S&P 500 was up by 3.11 points or 0.13 percent to 2,441.32.