A Wall Street sign hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange opened in disarray on Friday, with investors still betting on a 25 basis point rate cut at the next Federal Reserve meeting, while the fall in Tesla stock weighs on the Nasdaq.
In the first exchanges, the Dow Jones index gained 98.90 points, or 0.23%, to 42,553.02 points while the Standard & Poor’s 500, broader, was stable at the opening, down slightly by 0.01% to 5,779.51 points.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.37%, or 66.86 points, to 18,215.18 points.
U.S. Labor Department data showed the producer price index remained unchanged in September, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.1 percent rise.
However, the core producer price index, which excludes volatile components such as food and energy, advanced 2.8% on an annual basis, slightly higher than the expected increase in 2.7%.
This data again strengthened bets on the possibility of a 25 basis point rate cut at the November Fed meeting.
“The annual figures are a little higher and it will take a little time to understand the reasons, (but) there is nothing particular in these figures that will cause the markets to change their minds,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers.
On the values side, the American banking sector is on the rise after three major banks, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and BlackRock, published their results this Friday.
Morgan Stanley advanced by 1.8%, Goldman Sachs by 1.4%, Citigroup by 2.2%, Bank of America by 3%, BlackRock by 1.9%, JP Morgan by 1.9% and Wells Fargo by 3 .9%.
Tesla loses 8.3% after Elon Musk unveiled his highly anticipated robot taxi.
The robo-taxis event somewhat eased concerns about competition in the taxi sector, allowing Uber to gain 5.5% and Lyft 6.1%.
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(Reporting by Pauline Foret)
