Wall Street set for weekly gain, boosted by growth stocks By Reuters

By Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas

(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Friday and were set to snap a three-week losing streak, as investors piled into technology and high-growth stocks ahead of key U.S. inflation data next week.

The gains came on the back of a sharp sell-off beginning in mid-August that was triggered by concerns about the impact of tighter monetary policies and signs of an economic slowdown in Europe and China.

Investors are awaiting an August consumer prices report due next Tuesday for any signs that inflation may be easing. It is expected to show that prices rose at an 8.1% pace over the year in August, compared with an 8.5% print for July.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:) economists expect headline inflation to log its steepest monthly decline since the peak of the pandemic in April 2020, helped by a pullback in gas prices.

“There’s an expectation that the economy is slowing down, and inflation is starting to moderate, and in a slowing economy, people want to own growth. That’s where we have more visibility into earnings,” said David Sadkin, president at Bel Air Investment Advisors.

All the 11 major S&P sectors traded higher, with communication services, technology, energy and consumer discretionary leading the way.

High-growth stocks such as Tesla (NASDAQ:), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) gained between 1.6% and 3%.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that the U.S. central bank is “strongly committed” to controlling inflation but there remains hope it can be done without the “very high social costs” involved in prior inflation fights.

Several other Fed policymakers have also reiterated their commitment to fighting runaway inflation in recent weeks, making investors jittery about the prospects of another outsized interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

Traders are pricing in an 86% chance of a 75 basis point rate hike at the next meeting, up from 57% a week earlier, according to CME Group’s (NASDAQ:) Fedwatch tool.

The CBOE volatility index, a gauge of investor anxiety, fell to a two-week low of 22.9 but stayed above its long-term average of 20.

At 11:55 a.m. ET, the was up 304.36 points, or 0.96%, at 32,078.88, the was up 48.94 points, or 1.22%, at 4,055.12, and the was up 202.53 points, or 1.71%, at 12,064.65.

U.S. equity funds recorded outflows of $11.5 billion in the week to Wednesday, their largest outflow in 11 weeks, BofA said on Friday.

Kroger (NYSE:) Co rose 5.5% after the grocer raised its annual forecast.

Shares of Tapestry (NYSE:) Inc rose 2.6% after the luxury handbag maker said it expects revenue of $8 billion by fiscal year 2025.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 6.34-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and 2.76-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 43 new lows.