news/GOOG/2023.01.27/Wall Street ends higher, notches weekly gains as Fed meeting looms.txt

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)*PCE: inflation cools along with consumer spending*American Express, Visa climb higher on solid demand*Chevron falls after missing profit estimates*Indexes up: Dow 0.08%, S&P 0.25%, Nasdaq 0.95%NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street advanced on
Friday, marking the end of an rocky week in which economic data
and corporate earnings guidance 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 ended the session
green, with the Nasdaq, powered by megacap momentum stocks,
enjoying the biggest gain.From last Friday's close, the S&P and the Dow posted
their third weekly gains in four, while the tech-laden Nasdaq
notched its fourth straight weekly advance.So far in the early weeks of 2023, the Nasdaq has jumped
11%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow have gained 6% and 2.5%,
respectively."It's a nice end to another solid week of what's shaping
up to be a historically strong month," said Ryan Detrick, chief
market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. "It's a realization
that inflation continues to come down quickly and that is
alleviating a lot of worries regarding the economy."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 another building block to the
inflation data we’ve been seeing recently," Detrick added.
"Supply chains continue to open up and improve, opening the door
for the Fed to end its aggressive rate hiking cycle."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 28.67 points,
or 0.08%, to 33,978.08, the S&P 500 gained 10.13 points,
or 0.25%, to 4,070.56 and the Nasdaq Composite added
109.30 points, or 0.95%, to 11,621.71.Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, consumer
discretionary led the percentage gainers, while energy
suffered the largest percentage loss, down 2%.Shares of Intel Corp plunged6.4% after the chipmaker provideddismal earnings projections.Chevron Corp posted record 2022 profit, but its
fourth quarter earningsfell short of expectations, dragging the stock down4.4%.Rival payment companies American Express Co and
Visa Inc reported consensus-beating results, easing
worries of waning consumer demand. There shares jumped10.5% and3.0%, respectively.Next week, in addition to the Fed meeting and January
employment data, a string of high profile earnings reports are
on tap, notably from Apple Inc, Amazon.com,
Alphabet Inc and Meta Platforms, among
others.Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE
by a 1.40-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.34-to-1 ratio favored
advancers.The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 94 new highs and 32 new lows.Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.88 billion shares,
compared with the 11.10 billion average over the last 20 trading
days.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additonal Reporting by Bansari
Mayur Kamdar, Johann M Cherian and Shreyashi Sanyal in
Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis)