Stock market today: Indexes gain as investors assess new inflation data and latest earnings

• US stocks rose on Friday as markets assessed new inflation data in the form of March PCE.
• The Fed's preferred gauge showed inflation rose 2.8% year-over-year, slightly higher than estimates.

US stocks climbed on Friday, with investors digesting new inflation data and cheering earnings from mega-cap tech titans Microsoft and Alphabet.

Personal consumption expenditures data showed prices rose more than expected last month. The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation showed an uptick of 2.8% versus estimates of 2.7%.

The market seemed little fazed by the report, with the data mostly in line with previous prints showing inflation hovering above the central bank's 2% target.

"Friday's PCE print keeps rate cuts on the table for 2024, but we expect any rate cuts to come towards the end of the year, which will allow the Fed to analyze a few more inflation reports to ensure that the re-acceleration of inflation over the past few months was indeed a temporary uptick and not something more sustainable," Clark Bellin, president and CIO of Bellwether Wealth, said Friday.

"The market has been too optimistic about the speed and quantity of rate cuts and these high levels of inflation make it very difficult to justify an interest rate cut anytime soon."

Apart from macro updates, investors were feeling upbeat after Microsoft and Alphabet reported earnings for the first quarter on Thursday after the close. Microsoft beat expectations amid strength in its Azure cloud segment, while Alphabet topped estimates and surprised investors with the announcement of its first-ever dividend.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Friday:

• S&P 500: 5,081.58, up 0.7%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 38,130.78, up 0.1% (45 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 15,821.15, up 1.3%

Here's what else is going on:

• The peso has become the top-performing currency against the dollar.
• The US economy may be flirting with stagflation as growth slows and inflation remains stubbornly high.
• Billionaire investor Ron Baron says Tesla stock has bottomed and it's set to soar from here.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.9% to $84.31 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, ticked gained 0.7% to 89.66 a barrel.
• Gold rose 0.6% to $2,356.60 an ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield fell four basis points to 4.665%.
• Bitcoin rose 1.5% to $64.052.