Wall Street: stocks closed volatile as quarterly results exceeded expectations

The NYSE closed Friday slightly uneven, but posting weekly gains, thanks to a solid earnings season and expectations of monetary easing.

The indexe Dow Jones Industrials ended at 39512.84 points, rising 0.3%, the S&P500 stood at 5222.68 points, gaining 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite It depreciated 0.03%, reaching 16340.87 points.

Cooling labor market points to rate cuts

Weaker-than-expected employment data has raised hopes that The US Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates later this year.

Last week, The president of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, basically ruled out that the immediate step was an increase, And although Federal Reserve officials have warned that inflation is too high, investors expect the Federal Reserve’s rate cut cycle to begin in September.

Operators estimate a probability of almost 50% of the Federal Reserve reducing rates by 25 basis points in September.

Stubborn inflation remains a concern, putting the focus clearly on the consumer price index reading for April, which will be published next week. The reading is expected to moderate after the “maximized” figures of the last three monthsbut it is still feasible to remain above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Some voices from the FED

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Friday that in the current state of the economy there is no certainty what the next step will be.in the central bank’s interest rate policy.

“I’m waiting” when it comes to changing the level of the central bank’s interest rate target, Kashkari said in an interview on CNBC but added that there is a “high bar for another hike in the cost of credit if the inflation data demands it.” However, he did not rule out the first measure.

While Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan also said Friday that it is unclear whether monetary policy is tight enough enough to reduce inflation to the 2% target set by the US central bank and that it is “too soon” to cut interest rates.

There are still good reasons why Inflation returns to the Fed’s 2% target in the coming yearsLogan said at the annual conference of the Louisiana Bankers Association.

“There are also significant upside risks to inflation that are on my mind and I think there are also uncertainties about how restrictive the policy is and whether it is restrictive enough to keep us on this path,” he emphasized.

Season of positive results boosts confidence

A generally solid earnings season has contributed to the overall tone.

According to LSEG I/B/E/S Global, More than 80% of the S&P 500 has reported first-quarter results and companies are on track to have increased earnings by 7.8%compared to a growth expectation of 5.1% in April.

Few balance sheets presented and stocks on the rise and fall

The cloud services company Akamai Technologies fell 9% after releasing disappointing guidance for the current quarter and all of 2024.

For your part Video game software developer Unity Software fell 1.3% after its quarterly earnings per share missed analyst estimates.

While, Novavax shares more than doubled (+97%) after the biotech company signed a deal with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi to develop its Covid vaccine starting next year.

In the antipodes, Moderna shares fell 3.93% after the drugmaker announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delayed approval of its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine until the end of May due to “administrative restrictions” at the agency.

Shares of the electric vehicle company Tesla rose 0.2% following reports that the United States was preparing more tariffs against Chinese companies, which specifically targeted electric vehicles and other key sectors.