US open: Stocks higher as investors cheer PCE reading

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks were in the green early on Friday as market participants cheered recent a surprise reading of the Federal Reserve's favourite inflation gauge.

As of 1445 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.09% at 37,436.23, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.31% to 4,761.38 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.29% stronger at 15,007.22.

The Dow opened 31.88 points higher on Friday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

Major indices were on track for their eighth consecutive winning week at the open, the Dow Jones' first such streak since 2019, as investors digested news that annual US personal consumption expenditure inflation had slowed in November, hitting its lowest level since February 2021.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, PCE slowed to 2.6% in November, down from a downwardly revised 2.9% print in the previous month and below consensus estimates for a reading of 2.8%. Meanwhile, monthly core PCE inflation which strips out volatile food and energy costs, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, was little changed at 0.1% after a downwardly revised reading in October.

Elsewhere, orders for newly manufactured durable goods registered their biggest monthly increase in more than three years in November, according to the Census Bureau. US durable goods orders surged by 5.4% month-on-month in November, reversing a 5.1% decline in October and easily beating market expectations for an increase of 2.2% for the biggest gain in durable goods orders since July 2020.

Still to come, December's consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan and new home sales data for November will follow at 1500 GMT.

In the corporate space, Nike was down double-digits in early trading after warning of weak Q2 revenues and detailing plans to slash costs by roughly $2.0bn over the next three years.

Markets will be closed on Monday for the Christmas Day holiday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $47.08 2.88%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $267.45 2.69%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $26.06 2.60%
American Express Co. (AXP) $184.79 2.29%
3M Co. (MMM) $105.56 1.82%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $279.33 1.51%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $154.84 1.02%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $106.39 0.98%
Visa Inc. (V) $259.54 0.95%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $185.57 0.94%