Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 edged higher in subdued trading on Friday as traders largely stayed away ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.
The S&P 500 ended the day up 0.1 percent, hitting a 10-month high in intraday trading. The gain moved the blue chip in stock index deeper into bull market territory as it rose more than 20 percent above its most recent low in October.
S&P trading was muted, with the lowest daily volume since October 2022, suggesting investors are holding off on big bets ahead of next week’s U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.
The Fed is expected to hold off on raising interest rates, marking the first pause in its 14-month effort to tame inflation. Expectations of a June break gained momentum after Thursday’s US unemployment data showed a cooling labor market.
“Markets were rattled by weekly US jobs data that showed unemployment rising, giving the Fed another reason to consider holding off on raising rates when it meets next week,” said Matt Britzman, equities analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “And the great benefactors? Big Tech of course.”
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2 percent, boosted by expectations of a pause in interest rate hikes and a 4.1 percent jump in Tesla shares.
The automaker’s shares rose for an 11th straight day after it struck a deal to allow General Motors customers to use its electric vehicle charging system, a similar deal it has struck. Ford last month.
On a weekly basis, the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent for a fourth straight winning streak, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2 percent over the same period for a seventh straight week.
In a sign of the calm spreading across markets, the Vix volatility index fell to 13, the lowest level since the outbreak of panic over the coronavirus pandemic three years ago. The benchmark is a measure of expected fluctuations in the S&P index in the coming month.
Still, the yield on the two-year U.S. Treasury note, which is sensitive to rate expectations, rose 0.08 percentage point to 4.6 percent. The yield on the 10-year bond rose 0.03 percentage point to 3.74 percent. Bond yields rise as prices fall.
In Europe, stocks ended the day lower, with the region-wide Stoxx 600 down 0.1 percent and Germany’s Dax down 0.3 percent. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5 percent.
European gas futures jumped 21.5 percent to 31.75 euros, ending a volatile week higher ahead of an expected heat wave in parts of Europe at the weekend.
In Turkey, the lira extended its slide to record lows, down 1 percent to 23.34 against the dollar after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed former US banker Hafez Gaye Erkan lead the country’s central bank.
This article has been amended to reflect that the S&P 500 last breached the threshold in August