S&P 500 in best week since 2024 as reinvigorated bulls rally By Investing.com

Investing.com– The S&P 500 edged higher on Friday, posting its best week this year, as easing fears about the economic situation sparked a wave of stock buying in the wake of recent market turmoil.

At 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT), it gained 96 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% and added 0.2%.

Upbeat economic data continues ahead of Jackson Hole

Survey data released Friday showed consumer sentiment rebounded in August for the first time since August, further easing worries about the economy.”

“Recent data showed that sentiment is being dragged down by lower-income households, likely as a consequence of steady inflation,” Jefferies said in a note on Friday.

Consumers’ expectations of inflation over the next year and five to 10 years were also unchanged at 2.9% and 3%, respectively, reinforcing expectations that Fed policies are working just as the focus shifts to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech next week in Jackson Hole. Wym.”

We expect Chairman Powell to lay out a case for an orderly withdrawal of monetary policy tightening in a speech in Jackson Hole on the morning of Friday, August 23, and by orderly we mean 25bp rate cuts rather than 50 bp,” economists at UBS said in a recent note.

Ford to recall 85,000 SUVs, Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: ) agrees with the US

In corporate news, shares of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: cause of concerns about an engine fire.

Shares of Texas Instruments ( NASDAQ:TXN ) fell 1% despite the semiconductor company signing a nonbinding preliminary memorandum with the U.S. Commerce Department to receive $1.6 billion in funding as part of the CHIPS Act.

The agreement establishes up to $1.6 billion in direct funding proposed under the CHIPS and Science Act to support the construction of three 300mm semiconductor wafer fabs in Texas and Utah.

Applied Materials Decline Despite Q3 Pace; Rocket Lab is making progress toward launch

Applied Materials pared losses to close less than 1 percent as the chip equipment maker gave upbeat earnings guidance late Thursday after fiscal third-quarter results beat Wall Street estimates, driven by continued growth in China, despite regulatory headwinds.

However, UBS flagged concerns that the company is “fundamentally most dependent on mature node demand and this is where spending is most overheated.”

Rocket Lab jumped more than 16 percent after the space company packed up and shipped two Mars-bound spacecraft to Cape Canaveral, marking its first mission to another planet. The twin spacecraft, due to launch next month, will support NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration mission and Dynamics Explorers.

Harris lays out economic agenda in first major policy speech

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday laid out her economic agenda focused on tax cuts, affordable housing and lower food prices, which the Democratic presidential nominee believes will create opportunity for the middle class.

The speech comes ahead of the Aug. 19-21 Democratic National Convention, when Harris has an opportunity to build on his momentum by pitching and expanding his policies to win over unengaged voters.

Harris now has a 2.8-point lead over Trump in the latest FiveThirtyEight national polling average.

(Ambar Warrick and Peter Nurse contributed to this article.)