Stocks A Tad Higher On Wall Street But Major Indices Still Down

Stocks are off to a modestly higher start on Wall Street on Aug. 31, 2022, though major indices remain lower for the week after several days of declines, Alex Veiga reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Serena Ventures, headed by tennis star, Serena Williams, who is in New York for the US Open Tennis Championships, was among the companies that listed this week.

The S&P 500 is up 0.4% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The benchmark index is coming off a three-day skid and is on pace to end the month with a 2.9% loss after surging 9.1% in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37 points, or 0.1%, to 31,823 and the Nasdaq rose 0.7%.

Communications, technology and health care companies helped lift the market. Meta Platforms rose 5.2%, PayPal gained 4.2% and Amgen added 1.2%. Energy companies fell along with crude oil prices. Occidental Petroleum slid 2.1%.

Bed Bath & Beyond sank about 23% after announcing a major restructuring and a stock sale, while Snap, the operator of the Snapchat messaging app, jumped 10.3% after announcing it will lay off 20% of its workforce.

Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, rose to 3.13% from 3.11% late Tuesday.

European markets were lower and Asian markets closed mixed Wednesday. In Europe, markets fell after a report showed inflation in countries using the euro hit another record in August as energy prices soared, largely because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Annual inflation in the eurozone’s 19 countries rose to 9.1%, up from 8.9% in July, according to the European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Inflation is at the highest levels since record-keeping for the euro began in 1997.

The latest figures add pressure on European Central Bank officials to continue raising interest rates, which can tame inflation, but also stifle economic growth, ABC News also reported.

Stocks got off to a solid start in early August, continuing a July rally. Investors were encouraged to see that signs that inflation, while still high, was leveling off.

That fueled optimism on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve might be able to ease back on raising interest rates, its main weapon in its fight to bring inflation down. Those gains followed a weak first half of the year where the S&P 500 dropped 20% from its most recent high and entered a bear market.

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