S&P 500 Index builds on Thursday’s gains, energy and financial stocks rise sharply

• Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher on Friday.
• All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 trade in the positive territory.
• Energy and financial stocks post impressive gains after the opening bell.

Major equity indexes started the last day of the week higher despite mixed macroeconomic data releases from the US. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.45% at 32,767, the S&P 500 was gaining 0.4% at 3,825 and the Nasdaq Composite was rising 0.3% at 12,816.

Earlier in the day, the data published by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that Personal Spending in February declined by 1% while Personal Income contracted by 7.1%. Nevertheless, investors largely ignored these figures due to the impact of severe weather conditions.  

Furthermore, the Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, edged lower to 1.4% in February.

All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 trade in the positive territory after the opening bell. The Energy Index is the top gainer, rising 1.15% on the back of a 4% increase in crude oil prices. Additionally, the Financials Index is up nearly 1% supported by the recovering US Treasury bond yields.

S&P 500 chart (daily)