Wall Street stocks open higher, health care lead
Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP)
Stocks are opening a bit higher on Wall Street, led by gains in big banks after several of them reported results that were better than investors were expecting. Health care companies were also doing better than the rest of the market after UnitedHealth, a major insurer, reported solid earnings. The S&P 500 climbed 0.2% in the early going Friday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about twice as much as that. U.K. government bond yields fell after embattled Prime Minister Liz Truss replaced her finance minister, whose plan to make huge, unfunded tax cuts had upset markets.
Global stock markets surged Friday after Wall Street rebounded from a slump caused by higher-than-forecast inflation numbers.
Market benchmarks in London and Paris opened up more than 1%. Tokyo jumped 3.3% for its biggest one-day gain in seven months. Hong Kong and Shanghai also rose. Benchmark U.S. crude rose almost $2 per barrel.
On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was down 0.4%.
Wall Street slumped Thursday after the U.S. consumer price index for September rose 8.2%. But the S&P 500 rebounded to end up 2.6% for its biggest daily gain in 2 1/2 years.
The “sticker shock” of inflation was “shrugged off,” possibly because traders already expect another sharp interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve next month to cool surging prices, said Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank in a report.
The Fed and central banks in Europe and Asia have raised rates by unusually wide margins this year to contain inflation that is at multi-decade highs. Traders worry they might tip the global economy into recession.
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.6% to 6,894.30 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.8% to 5,925.44. The DAX in Frankfurt advanced 0.5% to 12,420.24.
On Wall Street, the future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3%.
On Thursday, the Dow rose 2.8% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.2%.
Thursday’s CPI report showed inflation is spreading more widely across the economy.
The CPI was down from August’s 8.3% increase. But core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy costs to show the long-term trend, accelerated to 6.6% from August’s 6.3%. Prices in September rose 0.6% from the previous month.
That appeared likely to reinforce Fed plans for more big rate hikes. Most traders already expected a rise of up to three-quarters of a percentage point, three times its usual margin, at the U.S. central bank’s next meeting in November.
Thursday’s data prompted some investors to expect yet another rate hike of the same size in December.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped to 27,090.76 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.2% to 16,587.69.
The Shanghai Composite Index added 1.8% to 3,071.99 after official data showed inflation rose to a 29-month high of 2.8% in September from the previous month’s 2.5%. That was below the official ceiling of 3%, leaving Beijing room to stimulate weak economic growth.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 2.3% to 2,212.55 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 rose 1.8% to 6,758.80. and
India’s Sensex advanced 1.8% to 58,257.86. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also rose.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.38 to $88.65 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 4 cents to $94.53 per barrel in London.
The dollar rose to 147.59 yen from Thursday’s 147.17 yen. The greenback is at a 32-year high against the Japanese currency.
The euro declined to 97.51 cents from 97.85 cents.
