US markets closed out their fourth straight month of gains, with the Dow Jones moving 0.2% higher and both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gaining 0.1% each on Friday.
This took the weekly results to 0.9%, 1.2% and 2.1% respectively, with the market closed for Memorial Day on Monday.
Inflation continues
Investors seem to be looking through inflation data and once again trusting the Federal Reserve.
The Personal Consumption Expenditure index, which is relied upon by policymakers as a real gauge of inflation, has jumped 3.1% over the last 12 months.
However, given the majority of these prices increases are due to the disruption of supply chains across the world and the resultant shortage, it seems appropriate to look beyond the short-term.
Until businesses are forced to pay higher wages and the economy reaches full employment, inflation will likely remain muted.
Meme stocks back in vogue
The Russell 2000 index continued to deliver, with the smaller company benchmark delivering an eighth straight month of gains with the ‘meme’ stocks contributing once again.
Costco earnings
Shares in Costco (NYSE: COST) fell despite beating expectations to deliver a 21.5% increase in quarterly revenue to US$45 billion; incredible growth from a fairly basic business model.
Comparable sales, removing more volatile fuel sales, were 15% higher whilst e-commerce and online sales continued to lead the way, jumping 38%.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks closed out the week on Friday.
- Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) up 6.1%
- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) up 5.4%
- NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) up 4.9%
- Fiverr (NASDAQ: FVRR) up 4.2%
- CoinBase (NASDAQ: COIN) down 4.3%
- Gap (NYSE: GPS) down 4.8%
- HP (NYSE: HPQ) down 8.9%
- Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) down 11.2%
ASX 200 today
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is tipped to edge higher at the open on Monday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.
