The Dow rallied to notch second-straight weekly win Friday as big tech led a rebound in stocks following a wobble a day earlier when Fed chair Jerome Powell’s reminder that rate hikes aren’t over rattled markets.
At 16:00 ET (21:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 391 points or 1.2%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.5% and the NASDAQ Composite rose 2.1%.
Some Fed speakers opt for less hawkish remarks following Powell’s speech; tech leads rally
Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic said Friday he believes the the Fed will get to its 2% target “without us having to do anything more,” as the full impact of the rate hikes delivered need more time to filter through the economy.
The remarks were in contrast to Powell’s remarks on Thursday, when the Fed chief said the Fed “was not confident” they had reach a sufficiently restrictive level of rates to bring down inflation.
“Despite the clear messaging, however, investors have only modestly increased expectations for a rate hike in January from a low of less than 1% to a 19% probability as of late,” Stifel said in a note.
The rebound in the broader market was underpinned by rally in big tech, with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) leading the move higher in big tech.
Apple agrees to $25 million settlement
The quarterly earnings season is coming to an end, but Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) traded sharply lower, down 39%, after the hydrogen fuel-cell firm’s third-quarter revenue missed estimates.
Additionally, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is set to pay up to $25 million to settle claims from the Justice Department that the tech giant favored hiring immigrant workers over American citizens and legal green card holders for some jobs. Shares rose 1%.
Plug Power sinks to fresh 52-week, Illumina dives as softer guidance brings storm clouds
Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) reported third-quarter results that fell short of analysts estimates on both the top and bottom line owing to hydrogen supply shortages that disrupted operations. It’s shares fell 40%.
The disappointing quarterly results drew a string of downgrades from Wall Street analysts, with RBC downgrading the clean energy company to sector perform and slashing its price target on the stock to $5 from $12 a share.
Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) fell more than 8% after cutting its annual guidance following Q3 revenue that missed expectations. The gene-sequencing company said the “challenging macroeconomic environment” was weighing on demand.
Oil heads for another losing week
Oil prices rose Friday, but were still heading for a third straight week of steep losses on persistent concerns over slowing global demand and resurgent fears of rising U.S. interest rates.
Both benchmarks are currently down over 5% this week, and on course for the longest weekly losing streak since a four-week drop from mid-April to early May.
Inflation, retail sales in focus next week
An update on inflation and retail sales will dominate investor attention next week following a week of Fed speak that largely pushed back against expectations for sooner rather than later rate cuts.
The core consumer price index, which is more closely watched by the Fed, is expected to have remained steady in October at a monthly and annual pace of 0.3% and 4.1% respectively.
Retail sales, meanwhile, could flag a slowdown in the consumer, which has been stronger than many expected, with economists forecast a 0.1% decline in October following a 0.7% a month earlier.
