Investing.com – Wall Street opened higher on Friday as bond yields fell and investors look ahead to speeches from Federal Reserve officials for clues on how quickly the Fed will raise rates.
The S&P 500 was up 14 points or 0.55% to 2,718.93 as of 9:48 AM ET (14:48 GMT) while the Dow composite increased 157 points or 0.63% to 25,120.39, and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite rose over 43 points or 0.61% to 7,253.81.
Stocks were under pressure earlier this week after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed the central bank expected to continue increasing rates.
The yield on the U.S. Treasury 10-year note rose to a four-year high following the minutes. The yield eased down on Friday to 2.892%.
Investors will be watching for further clues when New York Fed President William Dudley, Cleveland Fed's Loretta Meister and San Francisco Fed President John Williams speak later in the day.
Markets were bolstered by rising technology and services stocks. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 1.13% while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) increased 1.11% while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) surged 2.17%. Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) recovered 1.77% after falling over 6% on Thursday while Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) was up 9.81% after posting higher than expected earnings.
Meanwhile, General Mills (NYSE:GIS) was down 4.09% after it announced it was buying natural pet food company Blue Buffalo for $8 billion while Universal Display (NASDAQ:OLED) fell 12.43%.
In Europe stocks were mostly up. In Germany the DAX rose 31 points or 0.625 while France’s CAC 40 increased five points or 0.10% and in London the FTSE 100 gained 207 points or 0.93%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was down 70 points or 0.71% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 inched up one point or 0.03%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.26% to $1,329.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures rose 0.24% to $62.92 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.25% to 89.88.