Stock market today: live updates

Investor bullishness weakened 6.5 points this week to 44.9% from 51.4% last week, but remained above the historical average of 37.5% for the eighth consecutive week – the longest stretch above the historical average since early 2021, the American Association of Individual Investors said Thursday. “Optimism is back within its normal range after the unusually high reading last week,” the AAII said.

AAII bearishness rose to 31.0% of those polled from 27.1% last week. The historical average is 31.5%.

Meanwhile, in this week’s Investors Intelligence poll, editors and advisors of bullish financial newsletters rose higher, to 55.6% from 54.2% last week. Bearishness increased from 18.0% to 19.4%. The spread between bulls and bears remained unchanged at 36.2 points, just below the June 2023 peak of 36.6 points which was the highest since November 2021.

— Scott Schnipper

The major averages opened higher on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 177 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 added 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.07%.

— Sarah Min

Joint development plans with Volkswagen mark a new chapter for Xpeng, says Jefferies. The company upgraded its Xpeng stock rating to buy from hold.

The partnership marks “the beginning of China (original equipment manufacturers) exporting technologies to foreign players (and) will help Xpeng boost its brand image globally,” analyst Johnson Wan wrote in a Thursday note.

Wan added that Xpeng’s sales momentum is on an upward trend and raised its sales volume forecasts for 2023-2024.

Xpeng shares gained nearly 7% on Friday before the bell.

More about the upgrade can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

For the first time in New York Community Bank coverage dating back to the great financial crisis, JPMorgan upgraded the stock from neutral to overweight.

“With ~$120 billion in assets behind the company and a new energy under CEO Tom Cangemi, we see the New York community emerging as a potential mass takeover of market share in the coming years,” analyst Steven Alexopoulos wrote in a Friday note.

Shares rose 2.9% in premarket trading on Friday.

The full story about the upgrade can be found here.

Inflation showed further signs of cooling in June, according to a gauge released Friday that closely tracks the Federal Reserve.

The personal consumption price index, excluding food and energy, rose just 0.2% from the previous month, in line with the Dow Jones estimate, the Commerce Department said.

The so-called core PCE rose 4.1% from a year ago, compared to the estimate of 4.2%. The annual rate was the lowest since September 2021.

— Jeff Cox

Here are some of the stocks moving the most before the bubble:

• Intel – Shares rose 6.7% after the chipmaker posted better-than-expected second-quarter results and returned to profitability after two straight bouts of loss.
• Roku – Streaming stock rose nearly 10% after reporting a smaller-than-expected loss for the second quarter. Roku reported a loss of 76 cents per share and revenue of $847 million.
• Procter & Gamble – The consumer giant saw shares rise more than 1% in premarket trading after the company reported quarterly earnings and earnings that beat analyst expectations. However, P&G released a gloomy outlook for fiscal year 2024 revenue that fell short of Wall Street estimates.

Read the full list of premarket movers here.

— Samantha Subin

Exxon Mobil fell 0.4% in premarket trading after reporting a second-quarter earnings miss. The oil giant posted adjusted earnings of $1.94 per share, lower than the $2.01 per share estimate expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Exxon Mobil exceeded revenue expectations. The company reported $82.91 billion, better than the expected $80.19 billion.

— Amelia Lucas, Sarah min

US Treasury bond yields were mixed Friday as investors awaited the release of the latest installment of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge. They also assessed the outlook for global monetary policy following a series of interest rate decisions from central banks around the world.

At 4:38 a.m. ET, the 2-year Treasury yield was down about five basis points to 4.8889%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond last traded at 4.0006% after falling just over a basis point.

Japanese 10-year government bond yields reached 0.539% after the Bank of Japan announced an adjustment to its yield curve management policy.

This is the first time since September 2014 that 10-year JGB yields have reached this level.

The BOJ said it will still allow yields to fluctuate in the range of about plus and minus 0.5%, but that it will “execute yield curve control with more flexibility, with respect to the upper and lower bounds of the reach as references, not as rigid limits, in its market forces.”

Separately, the Bank of Japan kept its policy rate at -0.1%.

— Lim Hui Jie

The Japanese yen is up 0.38% against the greenback and is trading at 138.95 following a report that the Bank of Japan will discuss adjusting its yield curve control policy.

Nikkei has learned that the BOJ will allow long-term interest rates to rise “to some extent” above the 0.5% limit.

As part of its yield curve management, the central bank targets short-term interest rates of -0.1% and 10-year government bond yields of 0.5% above or below zero.

“The proposed change would preserve the tariff cap but allow for moderate increases above that level,” Nikkei added.

— Lim Hui Jie

China’s housing ministry has announced plans to make it easier for people to buy real estate.

“It seems to us that (the housing ministry) is reacting quickly this time and also getting bolder in easing real estate policies,” Jizhou Dong, China research analyst for real estate at Nomura, said in a note Friday.

Hong Kong-traded Chinese real estate stocks such as Longfor, Country Garden and Greentown China traded higher on Friday, on pace to finish the week in gains after plunging Monday on debt concerns.

However, markets are still awaiting local implementation details. China has also not yet announced any formal measures to support real estate.

— Evelyn Cheng

The consumer price index in Japan’s capital Tokyo rose 3.2% year-on-year in July, slightly higher than the 3.1% recorded in the previous month.

This is the 14th consecutive month that inflation in the capital exceeded the Bank of Japan’s target of 2%.

Core inflation in Tokyo – which excludes fresh food prices – came in at 3%, slightly higher than the 2.9% expected by the economies surveyed by Reuters, but lower than June’s figure of 3.2%.

— Lim Hui Jie

June data for the personal consumer spending index is expected Friday morning. The Federal Reserve closely monitors this inflation indicator.

Economists polled by Dow Jones expect core PCE to be up 0.2% from the previous month and 4.2% from 12 months earlier.

—Alex Harring

Thursday’s drop wasn’t enough to wipe out weekly gains, though they are marginal. With only Friday’s session left in the trading week, here are the three main indices:

—Alex Harring

Here are some of the stocks making the biggest after-hours moves:

• Intel – Technology stock rose 8% as investors welcomed a return to profitability and better-than-expected guidance.
• Ford – The automaker was down 1% after raising full-year expectations and beating second-quarter expectations.
• Roku – The streamer added 8.5% after a better-than-expected quarterly report.

View the full list here.

—Alex Harring