US close: Stocks higher following November PCE reading

dl nyse new york stock exchange new york city nyc wall street wall st nasdaq markets trading finance unsplash — Sharecast / David Vives via Unsplash

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday as the blue-chip clawed back some of this week's heavy losses.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.18% at 42,840.26, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.09% to 5,930.85 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.03% firmer at 19,572.60.

The Dow closed 498.02 points higher on Friday, building on modest gains recorded in the previous session.

Friday's primary focus was November's personal consumption expenditures index, which revealed Americans continued to spend at a steady clip last month, while prices rose slightly less than anticipated. According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, personal incomes rose at a month-on-month clip of 0.3% during November, while personal spending increased by 0.4%. On the inflation front, the annual rate of increase in the price deflator for personal consumption expenditures ticked higher from 2.3% to 2.4%. Core PCE prices meanwhile were steady at 2.8% year-on-year (consensus: 2.9%).

Elsewhere on the macro front, Consumer confidence in the US rose modestly, although inflation expectations were mixed, the results of a closely followed survey revealed. A final reading on the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index for the month of December came in at 74.0, which was up from 71.8 one month before - in line with a preliminary reading and consensus forecasts.

Also drawing some investor attention, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was more than five basis points lower at 4.519% after breaking above the 4.5% barrier earlier in the week.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $19.52 2.41%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $500.13 2.22%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $343.65 2.21%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $566.10 2.19%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $39.94 2.15%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $9.55 2.14%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $237.60 1.99%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $392.60 1.97%
American Express Co. (AXP) $298.65 1.90%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $254.49 1.88%