NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed higher on Wall Street, ending a four-day losing streak. The S&P 500 added 1.2% Monday. The benchmark index is coming off its worst week in nearly a year and a half. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite also rose 1.2%. Boeing helped lead the market after reaching a tentative deal with its largest union on a new contract. Palantir Technologies and Dell Technologies rose after being named to join the S&P 500. Yields held relatively steady in the bond market ahead of reports coming this week on inflation at both the wholesale and consumer levels.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Monday and clawing back some of the losses from their worst week in nearly a year and a half.
The S&P 500 was 0.9% higher in afternoon trading and on track to break a four-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 453 points, or 1.1%, as of 2:17 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.
Boeing climbed 3.6% after reaching a tentative deal with its largest union on a new contract that, if ratified, will avoid a strike that threatened to shut down aircraft production by the end of the week. Boeing said 33,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers would get pay raises of 25% over the four-year contract.
After likewise climbing a bit in the morning, Treasury yields later pared their gains in the bond market. That followed sharp swings last week, when a highly anticipated update on the U.S. job market came in weak enough to worsen worries about the slowing U.S. economy.
The Federal Reserve has been intentionally pressing the brakes on the economy through high interest rates in order to stifle high inflation. It’s set to start lowering rates later this month, which would ease the pressure on the economy, as it turns its focus toward protecting the job market and avoiding a recession. The question on Wall Street is if the Fed's shift in focus will prove to be too late.
Cuts to interest rates give stock prices a boost, but if an economic downturn does hit, it could more than offset such a benefit by dragging down profits for companies. That's what happened in 2007, for example, when the Great Recession wrecked the global economy and financial markets.
“Today, the absence of glaring household or corporate balance sheet vulnerabilities means Fed easing should be enough to prevent recession, and should provide investors some optimism for the future of the market,” suggests Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
On Wall Street, Apple’s stock fell 1.3% as the company held an event unveiling its latest iPhone model, the 16. It’s the first model to be tailored specifically for artificial intelligence, with expected improvements to its often dim-witted virtual assistant, Siri.
Palantir Technologies jumped 12.8% in its first trading after S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would add the company to its widely followed S&P 500 index. Dell Technologies rose 3.6%, and Erie Indemnity gained 1.3% after they likewise got a notice of promotion to the index.
Trading in Big Lots was halted after the discount retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it plans to sell its assets and ongoing business operations to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield edged down to 3.71% from 3.72% late Friday.
This upcoming week will feature the latest monthly updates on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels. Such reports used to be the most anticipated economic data of each month, but market watchers say they’re now taking the back seat to updates on the job market because of the worries about a possible recession.
Of course, if the inflation reports show an unexpected spike higher in inflation, that could put the Federal Reserve in its worst-case scenario. Lower interest rates could help boost the economy, but they could also give inflation more fuel.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Europe after falling in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5% after the country’s economic growth for the second quarter was revised below expectations.
Chinese stocks racked up losses after worse-than-expected inflation data disappointed investors. Indexes fell 1.4% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
Stan Choe, The Associated Press