U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 550 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 1.13% to 52,651.12 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.20% to 26,395.64. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.08% to 7,673.46.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 1.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, utilities stocks rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

U.S. annual inflation held at 3.4% in August, matching the market consensus and remaining unchanged from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

On the month, prices rose 0.4% as expected, after a 0.1% increase in July, with gasoline up 3.9% and accounting for over a third of the monthly increase.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Beneficient (NASDAQ:BENF) shares shot up 124% to $2.71.
  • Shares of Picocela Inc – ADR (NASDAQ:PCLA) got a boost, surging 52% to $14.74.
  • Tenon Medical Inc (NASDAQ:TNON) shares were also up, gaining 49% to $7.89.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • U Power Ltd (NASDAQ:UCAR) shares dropped 35% to $4.80.
  • Shares of Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NYSE:OPTT) were down 31% to $0.11 after the company announced a 1-for-30 reverse stock split effective September 14.
  • CDT Equity Inc (NASDAQ:CDT) was down, falling 26% to $0.26.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.5% to $98.89 while gold traded up 0.5% at $4,429.60.

Silver traded up 0.8% to $65.435 on Friday, while copper rose 0.2% to $6.5615.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.7%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.8%, while France’s CAC 40 climbed 1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipping 1.93%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling 0.60%, China’s Shanghai Composite falling 1.18% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.16%.

Economics

U.S. annual inflation held at 3.4% in August, matching the market consensus and remaining unchanged from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

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