- Commodity rally lifts materials and energy.
- Fed Chairman Powell’s cautious stance on rate hikes boosts the sentiment.
- Led by Netflix, technology rose more than 1%.
Major equity indexes in the United States started the last day of the week slightly higher and continued to gather strength throughout the day to close the week on a positive note.
Oil’s strong rebound and metals’ upbeat performance on Friday boosted the commodity-sensitive sectors. The S&P 500 Energy Index added 0.8%, and the S&P 500 Materials Index gained 1.23%. Meanwhile, in his opening remarks at the Jackson Hole Symposium, Fed Chairman Powell said that they were no signs of the inflation accelerating above the 2% target rate and added that they didn’t see any risks of the economy overheating.
These comments weighed on the US Dollar Index as markets assessed them as a sign toward the Fed adopting a cautious stance after reaching the neutral rate. “He made it very clear that the Fed is not going to surprise the market with a more accelerated pace of rate hikes,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey, told Reuters.
Following an optimistic report that forecasted the subscriber count to beat Wall Street estimates in the third quarter, Netflix shares rose more than 5% and helped the S&P 500 Information Technology Index end the day 1.1% higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 134.13 points, or 0.52%, to 25,791.11, the S&P 500 rose 17.69, or 0.62%, to 2,874.67 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 67.92 points, or 0.86%, to 7,946.38. For the week, these indexes rose 0.47%, 0.87%, and 1.66%, respectively.
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