NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher yesterday, shrugging off data showing increased inflation following solid earnings from Salesforce and others.
A key United States inflation index climbed 3.6% in April compared with the same month in 2020, according to government data, the largest jump since September 2008.
The rise comes as economists debate whether government stimulus and loose Federal Reserve policy will cause the world’s largest economy to overheat.
The Fed has pledged to maintain low lending rates and its massive bond-buying programme until inflation holds steady above 2% and employment fully recovers.
“It really does come down to when the market thinks the Fed is going to taper” asset purchases, said Peter Hanks, a strategist at trading company IG.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended with a 0.2% gain at 34,529.45.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1% to finish at 4,204.11, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.1% to 13,748.74.
All three major indices finished with gains for the week. Markets will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
Among individual companies, Dow member Salesforce jumped 5.5% after the cloud computing company reported higher earnings on a 23% rise in revenues to US$6 billion (RM24.8 billion). Chief executive Marc Benioff pointed to “incredible momentum throughout our core business”.
Boeing fell 1.5% as it again halted deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner planes, as it works to address questions from regulators. The questions concern the inspection method for new aircraft following production problems that led to an earlier pause in deliveries. – AFP, May 29, 2021
