The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher on Friday as the stock benchmarks attempted to shake off concerns about rising bond yields and inflation to finish the week on an uptrend. The Dow was up about 150 points, or 0.6%, at 25,103, while the S&P 500 index was up 0.5% at 2,717. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.6% at 7,253. For the shortened-holiday week, the Dow and the S&P 500 were on pace for weekly drops of 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite, which booked its fourth daily decline in a row on Thursday, marking its longest skid since November of 2016, was still set for a weekly gain of about 0.3%. Looking ahead, markets were awaiting a release from a report on monetary policy at 11 a.m. Eastern from the Federal Reserve, which comes ahead of Jerome Powell’s inaugural testimony before congress as Fed boss next week. In corporate news, Shares of Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc. soared after General Mills Inc. said it planned on buying the pet-products company in an $8 billion deal. Weekly moves for equities have been market by continued volatility as investors fret about rising borrowing costs and worries that resurgent inflation may prompt the Fed to hike interest rates at a quickened pace. On Wednesday, following minutes from the central bank’s policy committee gathering in January, which suggested that rate hikes were on the horizon, the yield of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to a fresh four-year peak at 2.956%, prompting a selloff in stocks. However bond yields, which move in the opposite direction of prices, have since moderated.
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From:: Stock Market News