US Stocks Lower; Fed's Preferred Inflation Gauge Surges To Highest Level Since February

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 0.4% on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.22% to 45,537.65 while the NASDAQ fell 0.44% to 21,610.49. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.24% to 6,486.33.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.3% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, information technology stocks fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

An inflation reading closely tracked by the Federal Reserve climbed to its highest level since February, remaining stubbornly above the 2% target and raising new doubts around the timing of Jerome Powell’s anticipated interest rate cuts.

In July, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index—the Fed’s broad measure of inflation—increased 2.6% from a year earlier, right in line with Wall Street expectations. On a month-over-month basis, it climbed 0.2%, also matching forecasts, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday.

However, the core PCE index, which excludes food and energy and is considered the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, increased to 2.9% year-over-year, up from 2.8% in June. This marked the highest reading since February.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Movano Inc. (NASDAQ:MOVE) shares shot up 95% to $1.1900 after the company was granted a Nasdaq extension to regain compliance with filing by September 30 and $1 bid price rules by October 30, 2025.
• Shares of Professional Diversity Network, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPDN) got a boost, surging 70% to $3.3301 after the company announced it signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with OOKC Group to develop a Web3.0 digital investment banking platform.
• Ambarella, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA) shares were also up, gaining 28% to $90.76 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and guided third-quarter sales above estimates.

Equities Trading DOWN

• CaliberCos Inc. (NASDAQ:CWD) shares dropped 33% to $2.9701. CaliberCos recently announced it has adopted a digital asset strategy.
• Shares of Connexa Sports Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:YYAI) were down 29% to $2.71 after the company announced an agreement to establish the aiRWA digital asset platform.
• Lottery.com Inc. (NASDAQ:SEGG) was down, falling 27% to $4.3750.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $64.36 while gold traded up 0.1% at $3,478.50.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $39.670 on Friday, while copper rose 0.8% to $4.5765.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.9%. London's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, Germany's DAX 40 rose 0.01% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.3% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gaining 0.32%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.37% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.34%.

Economics

• In July, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index—the Fed’s broad measure of inflation—increased 2.6% from a year earlier, right in line with Wall Street expectations.
• The U.S. trade deficit in goods increased by $18.7 billion from the previous month to $103.6 billion in July compared to market estimates of $89.5 billion.
• U.S. wholesale inventories increased by 0.2% month-over-month to $908.4 billion in July compared to a 0.1% gain in June.
• U.S. personal income increased by 0.4% month-over-month to $25.905 trillion in July, while personal spending rose by 0.5% to $20.802 trillion.

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