Rising stock indices
US stock indices edged slightly higher in trading on Friday, with the S&P 500 hitting a new closing record despite data on accelerating US inflation.
US consumer prices (CPI) jumped 5 per cent in May compared with the same month last year the rate of inflation accelerated from 4.2 per cent in April and was the fastest in more than 12 years since August 2008, data from the country's Labor Department showed a day earlier. At the same time, the month-on-month increase in consumer prices slowed to 0.6 per cent in May from 0.8 per cent in April.
The U.S. state budget deficit fell 66.9 percent in May to $131.953 billion from $398.754 billion in the same month last year, the nation's Treasury Department said Thursday.
Budget revenues rose 2.7 times last month to $463.745 billion from $173.861 billion a year earlier. Expenditures rose 4 percent to $595.698 billion from $572.614 billion in May last year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index was up 13.36 points (0.04%) at 34479.6 by market close.
The Standard Poor's 500 rose 8.26 points (0.19%) to 4,247.44 points, ending its second consecutive session at a record high.
The Nasdaq Composite added 49.09 points (0.35%) to 14069.42 points.
The Nasdaq rose 1.9% last week, the S&P 500 added 0.4% and the Dow Jones fell 0.8%, breaking a two-week streak of gains.
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. shares jumped 15.4 percent in trading Friday after falling 22.2 percent in the previous two days. Shares of AMC and other companies popular with retail investors fell sharply on Thursday after GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME). said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating trading activity with its shares as well as those of other companies.
GameStop, which plummeted 27.2 per cent the day before, gained 5.9 per cent on Friday.
The price of securities of online pet products retailer Chewy Inc. dropped 5.8 percent.
Shares of McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD). added 1 percent.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc.'s capitalization was down 0.04%. The U.S. automaker has begun shipping the Model S Plaid, the most powerful version of its flagship electric sedan. An event to mark the start of deliveries took place on Thursday in the vicinity of Tesla's factory in Fremont, California.
