Newscasts - Wall Street notches slight gains, Fed rate cut expectations on track

Ulta Beauty

05/12/2025 23:24

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Source: 'Reuters - Business videos'

Description: U.S. stocks closed out the trading week with slight gains on Friday as the latest flurry of economic data kept elevated expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week intact. Lisa Bernhard has more.

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Video Transcript:

Wall Street's main indexes closed slightly higher on Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 each rising roughly 0.2% and the NASDAQ adding 0.3%. Investors digested a slew of economic data this week, including Friday's Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index for September, the release of which was delayed due to the government shutdown. The report put the annual inflation rate at 2.8%, still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. While traders are betting the central bank will cut rates at its policy meeting next week, several Fed governors may dissent due to concerns about persistent inflation. But Eric Diton, President and Managing Director of The Wealth Alliance, points to other data that he believes should lead the Fed to lower rates.

The leading economic index versus the coincident, that's the future versus now. It's a ratio that some people look at is actually one of the weakest we have seen going back to the 1980s, talking about three other times that we've seen a weak number. So that means we're strong today, not strong looking forward, and that can be pre-recessionary. So, if I were on the Fed and you're asking me what I would do, I would probably cut rates this month as just a preventative measure.

Stocks on the move Friday included Warner Bros. Discovery, which climbed more than 6% after Netflix agreed to buy its TV and film studios and streaming division for $72 billion, ending a weeks-long bidding war. Netflix shares closed nearly 3% lower while shares of Paramount Skydance, one of the other bidders for Warner Bros., tumbled almost 10%. And shares of Ulta Beauty surged more than 12.5% after the beauty retailer raised its annual sales and profit forecasts.