By
Temitope Olatunji
April 26th, 2024
The US market indices also saw a good boost as the Department of Labor released the jobless claims for the week ended June 5.
The US stock market indices defied the inflation gains in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures for May to close Thursday on a positive note. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP: .INX) recorded a 0.47% gain to close at 4,239.18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX: .DJI) ticked a slight gain of 0.055% to 34,466.24 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) inked a 0.78% surge to 14,020.33.
These gains came after the CPI numbers dwarfed 13 years of record in the rise in consumer prices. For the month of May, the consumer price index inked 5% growth year-on-year. Officials are claiming that the figures only look high when compared to this period last year when economic activities were almost cripple due to lockdowns brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
The current CPI is second to the 5.3% recorded in August 2008, right before the United States was plunged into one of the worst economic recessions in history. While the key indices such as new vehicles and food index saw mild gains, the higher inflation figures were spiked by the sectors most hit by the pandemic. This, many analysts believe is transitory.
“The strength in the top line indices was driven largely by categories that have been heavily disrupted by COVID and remain under pressure from supply chain disruptions,” wrote Eric Wingorad, senior economist at Alliance Bernstein. “The more persistent categories of inflation – the ones that do a better job of capturing the sustainable trend – are significantly more subdued. That means that the details of today’s print continue to support the idea that the spike in inflation is transitory, even if it is more intense than most forecasters (myself included) would originally have anticipated.”
The market has been largely relieved as inflation fears limited market growths over the past months. Should the inflation figures be lower, market makers fear the Feds will remove the low-interest rates and other incentives in place for economic resurgence.
US Market Indices Also Boosted by Impressive Job Data
The US market indices also saw a good boost as the Department of Labor released the jobless claims for the week ended June 5. The figure, against the expected 370,000 came in at 376,000. While this appears high, investors on Wall Street knew this data is the lowest thus far in the pandemic era, and as such, impacted equity trading activities. Here is how the FAANG stocks performed on Thursday.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) recorded a 0.67% gain to close at $332.46 per share. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) dropped 0.80% to $126.11 while e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) added $68.50 or 2.09% to $3,349.65. Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX), and Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) also gained 0.30% and 1.13% with shares cresting at $487.27, and $2,435.13 respectively.
Shares of United Parcel Service, Inc (NYSE: UPS) surged 1.06% to $203.20 after analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) upgraded the firm’s share rating from neutral to overweight.