Market News

Wall Street ended lower on Friday as investors reviewed the inflation data and expected two interest rate cuts in 2025. The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all ended the day in positive territory. However, last week was negative for Wall Street.

How Did the Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 1.2% or 498.82 points to close at 42,841.06. Within the 30-stock index, 23 components ended in negative territory, while seven ended in negative.

The major gainer of the Dow was NVIDIA Corporation NVDA. The stock price of this semiconductor and computing platform company rose 3.1%. NVIDIA currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 199.83 points or 1% to 19,572.60.

The S&P 500 gained 1.1%, or 63.82 points, to end at 5,930.90. All seven broad sectors of the benchmark index are closed in green. The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR (XLRE), the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU), and the Technology Sector SPDR (XLK) rose 1.8%, 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 23.8% to 18.36. A total of 13.16 billion shares were traded on Friday, higher than the last 20-session average of 11.98 billion. The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 23 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 51 new highs and 233 new lows.

Inflation Moderates in November, Fed Adjusts Rate Cuts

U.S. inflation moderated in November, with the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, increasing by just 0.1% from October's 0.2% increase and bringing the annual rate to 2.4%, still higher than the Fed’s 2% target but lower than the 2.5% estimate. The core PCE, which excludes food and energy prices, also increased by 0.1% monthly while on a year-over-year basis, it increased by 2.8%, which was lower than the expected 2.9%.

According to BEA data, personal income increased by $71. 1 billion or 0.3% in November. Disposable personal income rose by $61.1 billion or 0.3%. Personal spending rose 0.4%, which is slightly below the expected 0.5%. The personal savings rate came in at 4.4%.

Following this data, the Federal Reserve, which had cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% points to a range of 4.25-4.5%, revised its outlook for future rate cuts. The central bank now expects two rate reductions in 2025, a decrease from the four cuts initially projected in September. The Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed out that inflation has moved closer to the 2% target but noted that the slower pace of cuts is due to the risks ahead for inflation.

Weekly Roundup

Last week, the S&P 500 fell 2%, the Nasdaq lost 1.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.3%.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Zacks Investment Research