US open: Wall Street moves into the green on 'dovish' Fed speak
Stocks on Wall Street were moving slightly higher at the end of the week amid a flurry of 'dovish' remarks from top US central bank officials.
In remarks to Bloomberg TV ahead of the opening bell, US central bank vice-chairman Richard Clarida said that rate-setters would act "as appropriate to sustain the expansion".
He was followed by Atlanta Fed chief James Bullard, who said that cutting rates now would help the country "navigate" an increasingly risky enviroment, and Minneapolis Fed boss Neel Kashkari who said he had argued for an immediate one-off 50 basis point cut in the Fed funds rate at Wednesday's FOMC meeting.
"I believe the FOMC should take strong action to re-anchor inflation expectations at our 2 percent target and support strong job growth, higher wage growth, and sustained economic expansion," Kashkari said.
Against that backdrop, as of 1528 BST the Dow Jones Industrials was adding 0.13% to 26,787.27, alongside a decline of 0.02% for the S&P 500 to 2,954.98 while the Nasdaq Composite was flat at 8.050.29.
In parallel, August gold futures on COMEX were 0.01% higher at $1,397.40/oz. and various analysts could be heard pointing out to clients the possibility for further gains, including those at Citi, who spied a possible move towards $1,500.9-1,600.0/oz. for over the next 12 months.
Related to the above, Oanda sernior market analyst Craig Erlam said: "If this week has shown anything, it's that we're once again very reliant on central banks for returns.
"US stocks are back at record highs and we very much have central banks to thank for that. The markets had already been on a decent run from various comments in recent weeks but Draghi put the icing to the cake on Tuesday and Powell added the sprinkles on Wednesday."
For their part, strategists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch pitched in saying: "The "fat pitch": Fed dovish + no G20 trade war escalation means stay long risk; "fat pitch" in H2 = short US dollar [...] everyone believes that 2% on the US Treasury is a rational price, and 3000 on the S&P500 is an irrational price."
To take note of, Friday was quadruple witching day on Wall Street, with quarterly futures and options for individual stocks and indices all set to expire.
Investors were also already looking out to the 28-29 June G-20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, where the US President and his Chinese counterpart were due to meet.
On the more optimistic side of opinions in the market regarding the most likely outcome for the G-20, BofA-ML was telling clients: "Trump prefers to be "Jobs President" not "Tariff President"; steel first industry to receive tariff protection; US Steel factory closure, slump in Philly Fed, rising joblesss claimsin battleground state Pennsylvania suggests G20 trade war escalation unlikely."
Corporate news flow was light on Friday, with stock in CarMax in the headlines and its shares running up by 5% after the second-hand car retailer beat analysts' estimates for its fiscal first quarter profits and sales.
The latest readings on the economy on the other hand were mixed, with a survey of conditions in the US factory and services sectors weakening a bit further but figures for new home sales printing ahead of forecasts.
IHS Markit's composite US Purchasing Managers' Index came in at a 50.6 for May, versus a reading of 50.9 in April.
Existing home sales were up 2.5% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.34m, according to Commerce, beating expectations for a 1.2% increase. On the year, however, sales were down 1.1%.
Dow Jones - Risers
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $125.99 1.37%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $250.81 1.23%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $111.57 1.13%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $58.05 1.11%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $111.37 1.07%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $197.77 1.06%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $77.33 0.94%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $47.54 0.74%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $134.27 0.48%
American Express Co. (AXP) $125.46 0.43%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $140.75 -0.89%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $141.42 -0.56%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $84.17 -0.51%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $210.27 -0.46%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $84.94 -0.35%
3M Co. (MMM) $173.38 -0.32%
Boeing Co. (BA) $373.90 -0.26%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $51.53 -0.25%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $43.55 -0.11%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $204.92 -0.10%
S&P 500 - Risers
Carmax Inc. (KMX) $87.17 5.02%
Baker Hughes, A Ge Company Class A (BHGE) $24.94 2.38%
Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) $62.00 2.11%
Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) $121.03 1.99%
Keycorp (KEY) $17.22 1.98%
Humana Inc. (HUM) $263.88 1.95%
Diamondback Energy Inc. (FANG) $109.62 1.89%
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) $170.81 1.68%
Arista Networks Inc. (ANET) $252.85 1.66%
Svb Financial Group (SIVB) $217.54 1.49%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Carnival Corp. (CCL) $46.26 -5.20%
Sealed Air Corp. (SEE) $41.51 -4.95%
Kroger Co. (KR) $22.34 -3.42%
Snap On Inc. (SNA) $162.34 -3.36%
Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (ARE) $145.37 -3.04%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $287.33 -2.82%
Albemarle Corp. (ALB) $67.79 -2.45%
Mid Amer Apt Commun (MAA) $117.07 -2.43%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $33.35 -2.34%
Royal Caribbean Cr (RCL) $115.98 -2.32%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $370.16 1.36%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $58.05 1.11%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $191.48 1.03%
Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $1,123.59 0.93%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $171.00 0.91%
Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $1,121.56 0.91%
Tesla Inc (TSLA) $221.60 0.90%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $29.38 0.89%
Expedia Group Inc. (EXPE) $130.73 0.87%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $155.25 0.74%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $287.33 -2.82%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $33.35 -2.34%
Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $69.51 -2.02%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $116.74 -1.73%
T-Mobile Us, Inc. (TMUS) $76.60 -1.71%
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) $525.61 -1.40%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $127.16 -1.30%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $16.10 -1.27%
Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $42.74 -1.10%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $317.26 -1.00%