NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are ticking higher Friday following some mixed signals on big banks' profits and on inflation.
The S&P 500 was up 0.2% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 143 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.
Wells Fargo dropped 7% even though the San Francisco-based bank reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said a key underlying measure of profit fell from a year ago, and that its net interest income could remain in the bottom half of the range it had forecast for the full year.
Bank of New York Mellon, meanwhile, rose 2.9% after its results topped expectations. Fastenal, a distributor of fasteners, jumped 4.3% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after also delivering profit for the spring that met expectations.
In the bond market, which has been home to some of Wall Street’s strongest action this week, Treasury yields yo-yoed after the release of the latest update on inflation, which said prices rose more for wholesalers last month than economists expected. It’s a letdown following Thursday’s report that said inflation at the consumer level last month was better than expected.
But after a couple initial swings up and down, Treasury yields calmed a bit and remained lower than they were late Thursday.
“It’s still going to take some time before we know whether yesterday’s number or today’s was the aberration,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed as high as 4.23% after the inflation report before settling back to 4.20%, down from 4.21% late Thursday.
The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations edged down to 4.48% from 4.51% late Thursday.
Traders are still banking on a 96% probability that inflation is slowing enough for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting its main interest rate in September, according to data from CME Group. Wall Street has been hoping for cuts to the Fed’s main interest rate, which is sitting at its highest level in more than two decades.
Lower interest rates would release pressure that’s built up on the economy because of how how expensive it’s become to borrow money to buy houses, cars, or anything on credit cards. Fed officials, though, have been saying they want to see “more good data” on inflation before making a move.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gave back some of its recent record-breaking run and fell 2.4%, though it’s still up more than 23% for the year so far.
Indexes were mixed across the rest of Asia and higher in much of Europe.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
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