Stock Market Today: Dow in rip-roaring gains as traders cheer in-line inflation

Investing.com– The Dow racked up massive gains Friday after data showing that the pace of inflation last month met expectations kept hopes of rate cut later this year alive, offsetting tech weakness.

 At 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT), Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 574 points, or 1.5%, S&P 500 rose 0.9% and NASDAQ Composite fell 0.01%.

Treasury yields fall as stable PCE keeps rate cut hopes alive

Treasury yields fell Friday as data showing the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, rose 2.8% in April, unchanged from a month earlier, matching investor expectations. 

The in-line data restored confidence somewhat that the disinflation trend remains on track following a slew of hawkish remarks recently from Fed members.  

With inflation stubbornly elevated, a “growing number of Fed officials continue to question whether the Committee stopped short of a sufficiently restrictive level to tackle price pressures, or if the current pace of policy is as restrictive as previously thought,” Stifel said in a note.

Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said on Thursday she is still worried about upside risks to inflation and warned the U.S. central bank needs to stay “flexible” and keep “all options on the table” as it watches the data and determines how to respond.

Tech pares losses even as Dell slumps on weak earnings; Zscaler rises

Tech, continued to drag on the broader as retreats from its record high levels, with chips stock and Dell leading to the downside. 

Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) slumped more than 17% after the technology group unveiled a lower-than-anticipated current-quarter earnings outlook and indicated that higher spending on building out servers to meet artificial intelligence workloads would weigh on full-year margins.

But despite the near challenges, UBS said it continues to back the Dell, as the company should continue to benefit from the growing demand for its AI servers. UBS said its price target on Dell to $164 from $141 on expectations that “AI ramp should continue despite the speed bump.”

The woes for enterprise software stocks following a slump in salesforce a day earlier continued, as developer data platform MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB) plunged more than 24% after cutting revenue guidance amid soft macroeconomic backdrop and slowing deal wins.

Nordstorm, Gap shine on earnings stage 

Apparel retailer Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) climbed 5% as the company maintained its full-year outlook, though delivered a wider than expected fiscal first quarter loss.

Gap (NYSE:GPS) surged nearly 29% after the clothes retailer raised its annual sales forecast and its first-quarter results beat market expectations. 

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) rose 8% after the cloud security firm reported strong quarterly earnings and also hiked its guidance.

Energy stocks shrug off falling oil prices

Energy stocks were higher even as oil prices turned negative as ongoing demand concerns offset ongoing expectations that OPEC+ is set to maintain its oil production curbs after announcing that its Jun. 2 meeting would now be held in person rather than remotely.  

Data released on Thursday, showed gasoline inventories grew 2 million barrels, more than expected. This raised concerns that demand in the world’s biggest fuel consumer was sluggish going into the travel-heavy summer season.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)