Investing.com – Wall Street managed to trade with slight gains on Friday, despite worse-than-expected data revisions and while waiting to see if the Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen will give signals later in the session.
At 15:39GMT or 11:39AM ET, the Dow 30 gained 40 points, or 0.22%, while the S&P 500 rose 7 points, or 0.33%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite traded up 25 points, or 0.52%.
Market participants were anxious to see if the generally dovish Yellen would echo the recent hawkish tone taken by fellow Fed officials and give any indications of her stance on timing for the continuation of monetary policy tightening.
Yellen, set to receive an award from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, will take part in conversations with former Fed chief Ben Bernanke and Harvard professor Gregory Mankiw.
Paradoxically, there is a timing issue with the event. While the Fed calendar listed the kickoff as 17:15GMT, or 13:15ET, the institution hosting the event had the conversation on the agenda for 16:30GMT, or 12:30ET.
Fed fund futures, while waiting for the event later Friday, were pricing the odds of a June hike at 24%, while the probability for tightening to happen in July was 55%.
The economic data reports released on Friday gave Yellen and the rest of the Fed some data to chew over in the long list of things to consider in the run-up to the June 15 meeting.
In a promising sign, the U.S. economy grew more than originally thought in the first quarter, according the second estimate of gross domestic product that was released today. However, the revision fell short of consensus expectations.
American consumers showed optimism in May, although the Michigan consumer sentiment was revised down further than expected.
Also of note for the Fed in the report, the inflation expectations for the next 12 months dropped to 2.4%, from the prior month’s 2.8% reading. That was also the lowest level since 2010 and could take pressure off the Fed for tightening given the downward trend.
Despite the worse-than-expected data readings, the US Dollar Index pushed higher against the other major currencies on Friday, simultaneously putting pressure on oil prices as it makes crude more expensive for those buyers using other currencies.
Even though black gold managed to break through the $50 psychological level earlier this week, traders opted to take profits on fears that these levels of prices could serve to reactivate crude production in the U.S., contributing to the supply glut.
In this regard, investors looked ahead to the Baker Hughes’ data on U.S. oil rig count which remained unchanged last week after eight straight weeks of declines.
U.S. crude futures slipped 0.12% to $49.42 by 15:40GMT, or 11:40AM ET, while Brent oil traded down 0.36% to $49.41.
In company news, Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) was reportedly turning to Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s former bank advisers as it prepared its bid for the Internet portal’s core assets.
In other corporate movements, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (NYSE:VRX) jumped more than 8% on a report that it had rejected a takeover to give its new chief executive Joseph Papa time to focus on running the company before considering a sale.
Veeva Sys Inc (NYSE:VEEV) popped more than 10% as first quarter earnings beat on both the top and bottom line and the company’s revenue guidance topped forecasts.
Big Lots (NYSE:BIG) soared over 10% after better than expected first quarter earnings-per-share (EPS) and the firm boosted its full-year EPS guidance.
On the downside, GameStop (NYSE:GME) slumped more than 6% despite better-than-expected earnings as its second quarter guidance missed estimates.