- US stocks were mixed on Friday but closed higher for the week as investors cheered a cooler June inflation report.
- Second-quarter earnings kicked off on Friday with JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and BlackRock all beating analyst estimates.
- Investors are expecting the latest earnings season to represent a trough for corporate profits.
US stocks were mixed on Friday but traded solidly higher for the week as investors got their first taste of second-quarter earnings results and cheered an upbeat June inflation report.
The S&P 500 rose 2.5% for the week while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 jumped more than 3%. The cooler June CPI report recalibrated futures expectations, with investors now pricing in just one more interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year.
Results from JPMorgan and Wells Fargo beat analyst estimates, while Citigroup posted mixed results that were weighed down by a disappointment in its investment banking division. Results from all the large-cap banks, as well as asset management giant BlackRock, showed no signs that the economy is on the verge of entering a recession, as some economists expect.
Investors expect second-quarter earnings results to represent a trough for corporate profits before they begin to rebound.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Friday:
- S&P 500: 4,505.51, down 0.1%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,509.03, up 0.33% (113.89 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 14,113.70, down 0.18%
Here's what else is happening today:
- The Biden administration said it will forgive $39 billion in student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers.
- SpaceX has hit a valuation of nearly $150 billion amid another round of share sales by insiders at the space exploration company.
- The US budget deficit ballooned to $2.3 trillion in the 12 months through June – that's a 64% jump from fiscal year 2022.
- China's weak economy is exporting disinflationary trends to the US, and that could help the US bring inflation down without sparking a recession, according to Ed Yardeni.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said US debt is 'out of control' - but that an accelerating US economy could ultimately solve the problem.
- Taylor Swift's impact on the economy has caught the eye of the Federal Reserve, as the singer's packed concerts have helped drive a noticeable increase in local economies.
In commodities, bonds and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 2.02% to $75.34 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, dropped 1.95% to $79.77.
- Gold fell 0.12% to $1,961.50 per ounce.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose 5 basis points to 3.82%.
- Bitcoin fell 4.32% to $30,114, while ether dropped 4.44% to $1,915.