Wall Street Today: Slow Day Sees Market Climb

The month was positive for indexes overall, even considering a 4% in the first week. The S&P 500 finished up 1.88%, the Nasdaq climbed 0.22%, and the Dow rose 1.55%.

Friday, Core Personal Consumption Expenditure inflation numbers came out lower than forecast, at 2.6% year over year. Regular PCE, including energy, came in at 2.5%, which was also lower than expected and in line with the previous month's numbers. Month over month, the PCE grew at 0.2% again. The figure maintained last month's record for the lowest PCE in three years.

Michigan consumer expectations and confidence numbers also dropped Friday, revised slightly upwards to a reading of 67.9 for August from 67.8 in the preliminary estimate. It came in above the final reading of 66.4 in July.

Thursday, US gross domestic product, was revised up to a 3% increase for Q2 from a 2.8% gain in the previous estimate, above expectations. GDP rose by 1.4% in Q1.

Initial jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 231,000 in the week ended August 24, the Labor Department said Thursday, right at estimates and just below the revised 233,000 from last week.

Last week, Fed President Jerome Powell did not specify the timeline for these rate cuts. Still, he said he was confident the economy was on the way to 2% inflation. "The time has come to adjust, and the direction is clear," Powell said. Investors are watching for macroeconomic data that might inform when and how strong rate cuts will come.

The number of oil rigs in the US was unchanged at 483 for the week ended Friday, according to data compiled by energy services company Baker Hughes (BKR).

The tally for gas fell by two to 95 every week, while miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at five. A year earlier, the US had 512 oil, 114 gas and five miscellaneous rigs in operation, company data showed. Across North America, oil-and-gas rigs fell by one every week to 803, compared with 818 at the same point last year. The count in Canada increased to 220 rigs from 219 a week earlier.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 3.24% at

$73.39 a barrel in Friday late-afternoon trade, on track for a third straight weekly loss. The drop followed a report that OPEC+ would consider supply increases, according to Benzinga.