GLOBAL MARKETS – US stocks climbed as investors assess inflation data

The S&P 500 traded 0.2 percent higher, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was last trading unchanged.

The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, rose 0.2 percent monthly and 2.5 percent from a year ago, in line with estimates from economists polled by Dow Jones. Excluding food and energy, it also rose 0.2 percent.

The Fed keeps a close eye on this metric and could still influence policymakers’ rate decisions in September.

“The equity markets are behaving as if everything is sanguine,” said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, speaking on Friday’s gains across all three indexes. “There’s more evidence for the soft landing and less evidence that the Fed will cut aggressively.”

As August’s trading winds down, the S&P 500 is on pace for a nearly 1.7 percent gain during the month, while the Dow
 is on track to add 1.3 percent. The Nasdaq Composite has lagged and was last unchanged on the month. The S&P 500 was on pace for its fourth straight winning month.

The major averages suffered a steep sell-off at the start of August, with the S&P 500 losing as much as 7.3 percent before recovering. The Dow and Nasdaq were down as much as 5.4 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, at their lows this month.

The S&P 500 is ending August not too far off its high for the month. The index is up about 2 percent this month—a dramatic recovery from the more than 7 percent decline it saw on August 5. That’s a swing of about 10 percentage points from low to high this month, the S&P 500′s widest range in a given month since October 2022.

About two-thirds of the S&P 500 is up this month, representing a broad rally, and giving the index its fourth straight monthly gain. It’s also the first time in exactly three years that the S&P 500 has risen in nine out of ten months.
 

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