US markets end higher on Friday

17 Feb 2024 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Friday amid concerns that Federal Reserve may not consider lowering interest rate anytime soon following a robust producer price inflation (PPI) data. Data from the Labor Department showed a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices in the month of January. The report said the producer price index for final demand rose by 0.3 percent in January after edging down by 0.1 percent in December. Street had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent. Excluding prices for food, energy, and trade services, core producer prices climbed by 0.6 percent in January after rising by 0.2 percent in December. The report also showed the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 0.9 percent in January from 1.0 percent in December. Economists had expected the pace of growth to decelerate to 0.6 percent.

Also, the 10-year Treasury yield spiked above 4.3% following the hot PPI reading. At one point, the 2-year Treasury yield topped 4.7%, the highest since December. However, the negative sentiment was partly offset by a separate report from the University of Michigan showing an uptick in consumer sentiment in the month of February. The report said the consumer sentiment index inched up to 79.6 in February after spiking to 79.0 in January. With the increase, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 81.2 in July 2021. Improving consumer confidence can often lead to greater spending, which can support economic growth. Since the pandemic, however, consumer spending has been mostly healthy even when measures of sentiment were quite low.

Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 145.13 points or 0.37 percent to 38,627.99, Nasdaq fell 130.52 points or 0.82 percent to 15,775.65 and S&P 500 was down by 24.16 points or 0.48 percent to 5,005.57. 

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