Investing.com — U.S. stocks edged higher Friday, ending a difficult week on a positive note despite continued worries about sticky inflation and high interest rates.
At 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT), Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 rose 20 points, or 0.4%, and NASDAQ Composite gained 60 points, or 0.4%.
The main Wall Street indexes are edging higher Friday, but, with the exception of the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, these are on track for weekly losses after the minutes of the Fed’s late-April meeting, showed that policymakers were growing increasingly concerned over sticky inflation.
This, in turn, was likely to delay any potential rate cuts this year.
Goldman now sees a rate cut in September
Analysts at Goldman Sachs have pushed back when they expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year, citing comments from central bank officials this week calling for more evidence that inflation in the world’s largest economy is sustainably cooling down to their 2% target.
In a note to clients on Friday, the Goldman Sachs analysts said they now do not expect the Fed to roll out a rate cut until September. They had previously estimated that the reduction — which would be the first since the Fed embarked on a steep run of policy tightening in 2022 — would come in July.
The widely-watched CME Fedwatch tool indicated a roughly 45% chance that the Fed brings rates down from a more than two-decade high level of 5.25% to 5.5% in September.
Economic data Friday showed that durable goods orders grew 0.7% in April, a slip from 0.8% growth the prior month, while remarks from Fed Board Governor Christopher Waller will also be in the spotlight later in the session.
Nvidia still in demand after earnings
In the corporate sector, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock gained 0.2%, continuing to rise after jumping over 9% a day earlier in the wake of a bumper first-quarter earnings report.
Elsewhere, Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) shares slumped 8% on soft guidance for the current quarter, with investors fretting over a loss of free users at its all-important TurboTax tax-preparation service, while Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) slipped 10% after the human resources software provider cut its annual subscription revenue forecast.
Deckers Outdoor (NYSE:DECK) stock rose 12% after the athletic shoes retailer reported strong quarterly sales growth, boosted by demand for its HOKA and UGG brands, Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) stock rose 1% after the EV maker said it would reduce its workforce by 6%, or around 400 employees, as the industry grapples with slower growth.
Crude heading for weekly losses .
Crude prices slipped lower Friday, heading for hefty weekly losses on concerns over U.S. economic activity amid sticky inflation and high interest rates.
By 09:35 ET, the U.S. crude futures (WTI) traded 0.5% higher at $77.25 per barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.3% to $81.57 per barrel.
Both contracts were on track to post weekly losses of around 3%, with Brent at its weakest level in two months, while WTI was at a three-month low.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
