news/GOOG/2023.01.27/US STOCKS-Wall Street advances, on course for weekly gains as Fed meeting looms.txt

(Fixes typo in paragraph 13)*PCE: inflation cools, consumer spending falls*American Express, Visa climb higher*Chevron falls post missing profit estimates*Indexes up: Dow 0.24%, S&P 0.45%, Nasdaq 1.16%NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street advanced on
Friday, nearing the end of an rocky week in which economic data
and corporate earnings guidance both hinted at softening demand
but also economic resiliency ahead of next week's Federal
Reserve monetary policy meeting.All three major U.S. stock indexes were last green after
see-sawing earlier in the session, with the Nasdaq out front.From last Friday's close, the S&P and the Dow have set a
course for their third weekly gains in four, while the
tech-laden Nasdaq appears set to notch its fourth straight
weekly advance.The Commerce Department's hotly anticipated personal
consumption expenditures (PCE) report arrived largely in line
with consensus, showing softening demand and cooling inflation -
which is exactly what the Federal Reserve's restrictive interest
rate hikes are intended to accomplish."(The PCE report) is welcome news with regards to the Fed’s
mission, but they’re not ready to retreat at this point," said
Matthew Keator, managing partner in the Keator Group, a wealth
management firm in Lenox, Massachusetts. "They will stay focused
on their mission, but the hope is that they will begin to
moderate their hawkish tones."Fed Chair Jerome Powell has clearly stated that the central
bank's battle against decades-high inflation is far from over,
however. Financial markets still believe the central bank will
hike the Fed funds target rate by another 25 basis points at the
conclusion of next week's policy meeting.Fourth-quarter earnings season is running on all cylinders,
with 143 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of
those, 67.8% have beaten Street expectations, slightly better
than the 66% long-term average, but well below the 76% beat rate
over the past four quarters, according to Refinitiv.Analysts now see aggregate S&P 500 earnings falling 2.9%
year-on-year, compared with the milder 1.6% annual drop seen on
Jan. 1, per Refinitiv.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 81.28 points,
or 0.24%, to 34,030.69, the S&P 500 gained 18.1 points,
or 0.45%, to 4,078.53 and the Nasdaq Composite added
133.41 points, or 1.16%, to 11,645.82.Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, consumer
discretionary led the percentage gainers, while energy
suffered the largest percentage losses.Shares of Intel Corp plunged 7.1% after the
chipmaker provided dismal earnings projections.Chevron Corp posted record 2022 profit, but its
fourth quarter earnings fell short of expectations, dragging the
stock down 4.1%.Rival payment companies American Express Co and Visa
Inc reported consensus-beating results, easing worries of
waning consumer demand. Their shares jumped 11.5% and 3.0%,
respectively.Bed Bath & Beyond Inc rose 4.2% in a partial
rebound after plummeting 22.2% on Thursday in the wake of
JPMorgan issuing a loan default notice.Next week, a raft of high profile earnings reports are
expected, notably from Apple Inc, Amazon.com,
Alphabet Inc and Meta Platforms, among
others.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.54-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.49-to-1 ratio favored advancers.The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 80 new highs and 29 new lows.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additonal Reporting by Bansari
Mayur Kamdar, Johann M Cherian and Shreyashi Sanyal in
Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis)