US stocks close first day of second half higher

Wall Street closed higher on Friday (1st) in empty trading, with investors leaving for a long holiday in the US and embarking on the second half of the year with an eye on the next catalyst of market movement.

All three major US stock indices reversed early session losses and ended in positive territory after the stock market’s worst first half in decades.

Still, all three indexes recorded losses for the week.

“We’re going on a long holiday weekend and we had a rally of relief at the end of the day,” said Joseph Sroka, investment director at NovaPoint in Atlanta. “But we will likely have to wait until investors return from the long weekend to see if that holds up at the start of the new quarter.”

Market participants are now looking forward to the second quarter corporate earnings season, a June employment report from the US Department of Labor and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting scheduled for later this month.

The microchip sector fell sharply on Friday after Micron Technology warned of a cooling off in demand. The company’s stock lost 2.9%, pushing the Philadelphia SE semiconductor index down 3.8%.

Concern about waning demand in the face of the highest inflation in decades was reflected in the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which showed a slowdown in US manufacturing activity. USA.

Despite some signs of a cooling economy, “the Fed will need to see a lot more evidence to change its mind about continued further rate hikes,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. “There is still a lot of uncertainty about the economy and inflation, despite early signs that inflation may have peaked.”

The S&P 500 rose 1.06% to 3,825.33 points, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.90% to 11,127.85 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.05% to 31,097.26 points.