Wall Street Opens Higher Despite Mixed Economic Data; Dow up 230 Pts By Investing.com

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened mostly higher on Thursday, shrugging off a mixed set of economic data and winding down ahead of the Christmas holiday period. 

By 9:50 AM ET (1450 GMT), the was up 240 points, or 0.7% at 35,993 points, while the was up 0.5% and the was up 0.3%. 

All three indices were adding to sharp gains made on Wednesday, amid a growing body of scientific evidence that the latest dominant strain of the Covid-19 virus may be significantly less dangerous than previous strains. Data from the U.K., Denmark and South Africa in the last 48 hours have all shown a reduced risk of serious illness from the so-called Omicron stream. 

Earlier, the latest economic data from the U.S. showed a modest slowdown in personal spending in November, which grew only 0.6% on the month. That’s still a decent clip but is clearly down from earlier in the year, and analysts said it added to evidence suggesting that the consumer boom fueled by stimulus payments over the first 18 months of the pandemic is slowing. 

The trend was also reflected in a 0.1% drop in core in November, stripping out defense- and aviation-related orders, which tend to be more volatile. 

In more encouraging news, continued to bounce along at a historically low 205,000 last week, indicating no softening of conditions in the labor market despite the latest increase in Covid-19 cases across the U.S. 

Core prices for personal consumer expenditures, meanwhile, again showed why the Federal Reserve is pivoting faster to a tighter monetary policy stance. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation rose by 0.5% on the month, more than the 0.4% expected, and October’s data were also revised up to show a 0.5% gain. That brought the annual rate of PCE inflation to 4.7%, up from 4.2% in October. The benchmark U.S. Treasury yield touched 1.50% for the first time in 10 days in response.

There were few individual stock moves of note. Among the biggest was Chinese e-commerce giant JD (NASDAQ:).com ADRs, which fell 9.9% after long-term backer Tencent Holdings (OTC:) said it will distribute almost all of its stake in the company, saying it was strong enough to stand on its own two feet. The move comes after months of increased scrutiny of China’s Internet giants by Beijing’s antitrust authorities, which has slashed tens of billions of dollars off their market value.  Tencent ADRs rose 4.2% but are still down some 40% from their July peak.

Avocado producer Mission Produce (NASDAQ:) also fell 9.9% after a disappointing quarterly update dominated by supply bottlenecks that led to spoiled shipments and lower margins.