US stocks rose as investors gained confidence that lawmakers were making progress on a deal to raise the debt-ceiling. The dollar strengthened.
(Bloomberg) — US stocks rose as investors gained confidence that lawmakers were making progress on a deal to raise the debt-ceiling. The dollar strengthened.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.3% while the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.3% after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy postponed a meeting on the debt ceiling that was planned for Friday. The delay reflects headway in staff-level discussions, according to people familiar with the talks.
“They will find a deal — we need to remember negotiations have only just started,” said Marie Jacot-Cardoen, chief executive officer of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management France, on Bloomberg Television. “It is likely political antagonism will increase before deal is reached, but we believe a compromise will be found.”
Tesla Inc. gained 1.6% after the electric-car maker raised prices of its Model X and Model S cars in the US, the third change in less than a month. The company also said it is recalling virtually every car it’s sold in China due to a braking and acceleration defect. Fox Corp. slipped as Wells Fargo Securities cut the recommendation on the media company’s stock to equal-weight from overweight, saying there’s some strategic uncertainty ahead.
Globally, stock markets have seesawed this week on mixed US economic data and ongoing worries about the debt ceiling. While tech stocks have continued to outperform, with the Nasdaq 100 Index climbing 1% so far this week, there’s plenty of skepticism about the industry.
Bank of America Corp. strategists led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note on Friday that a recession will “crack credit and tech” just as it did in 2008.
Stocks have been trading in a tight range as investors await a signal the Federal Reserve’s historic interest-rate hiking cycle is at an end. US data Thursday showed initial jobless claims reached the highest since October 2021 while producer prices rose less than economists expected, suggesting Federal Reserve policy tightening may finally be having an effect.
“This market has been flat because we’re in this world where we know the risk of recession is high, but we’re not seeing the whites of the eyes of it in hard data, and that’s why we continue to have this sideways chop,” Cameron Dawson, chief investment officer at Newedge Wealth, said Friday on Bloomberg Television.
Wall Street has been eying 4,200 as a key resistance level for the S&P 500. The risk is that the market moves higher, according to Dawson. “The technicals, the sentiment positioning could get us above that and really make it a very big pain trade,” he said.
The dollar rose as it headed for the biggest weekly gain since February. Treasury yields mostly ticked higher.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s rand sank as much as 1.6% against the dollar to the lowest level on record, before recovering. President Cyril Ramaphosa is starting an investigation into allegations that the country supplied weapons and ammunition to Russia.
Elsewhere in emerging markets, attention is turning to Turkey’s elections Sunday. Banking stocks have rallied in Istanbul, heading for their best weekly performance since 2002, when incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Ak Party rose to power. Some investors expect the opposition to restore more orthodox monetary policy should it gain power.
Key events this week:
- Fed Governor Philip Jefferson and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard participate in panel discussion on monetary policy at Stanford University, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 9:30 a.m. New York time
- The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
- The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.4%
- The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
- The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0888
- The British pound was little changed at $1.2518
- The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 134.82 per dollar
- The South African rand was little changed at 19.2145
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin fell 2.1% to $26,439.15
- Ether fell 1.3% to $1,773.04
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 3.40%
- Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.25%
- Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 3.75%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.8% to $71.43 a barrel
- Gold futures rose 0.1% to $2,023.10 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Allegra Catelli and Anchalee Worrachate.
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