US close: Stocks higher following PPI, bank earnings

Wall Street stocks were in the green at the close of trading on Friday as market participants digested quarterly earnings reports from some of the biggest names in US banking and better-than-expected inflation data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.97% at 42,863.86p, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.61% to 5,815.03 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.33% firmer at18,342.94.

The Dow closed 409.74 points higher on Friday, easily reversing losses recorded in the previous session as last month's consumer price index led to fears that inflation hasn't quite cooled off as initially hoped.

However, Friday's producer price index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics eased some of those fears as it revealed PPI was flat month-on-month and up 1.8% on an annualised basis. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the so-called core reading was 0.2% higher month-on-month. Economists expected to see headline PPI growth slow from 0.2% to 0.1% on a monthly basis.

Elsewhere on the macro front, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 68.9 in October, down from a five-month high of 70.1 in September and missing forecasts of 70.8.

In the corporate space, JPMorgan Chase said quarterly profits had slipped on the back of increased costs but still came in ahead of estimates, while Wells Fargo said its investment banking unit had helped offset the impact of reduced interest rates in Q3.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com