Peter Nurse
Investing.com – U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday, ending a volatile week on a positive note as hopes rise for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.
At 7:00 AM ET (1200 GMT), the contract was up 390 points, or 1.2%, trading 55 points, or 1.3%, higher and up 220 points, or 1.6%.
The successes follow a Reuters report citing Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying that “positive developments” have taken place in talks with Ukraine, rekindling hopes for a ceasefire in the war, now in its third week.
All of Wall Street’s major indexes closed lower on Thursday after talks between the two countries’ foreign ministers made no progress, with the blue chip down 1.3% on the week, potentially recording a fifth consecutive negative week for the first time since. . May 2019.
The war in Ukraine has pushed up the prices of oil and other commodities, raising fears that the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates faster than previously expected.
rose 7.9% in February from last year, the biggest annual gain in 40 years, data showed on Thursday, and that’s not counting the surge in commodity prices sparked by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Many expect interest rates to rise by 25 basis points when it meets next week, which is likely to be the start of a series of interest rate hikes to curb inflation.
Goldman Sachs cut its full-year GDP growth forecast for this year to 1.75% from 2.0%, with the influential investment bank warning that the chance of a US recession next year could be as high as 35%.
Friday’s data list is quiet, with only data from the University of Michigan pending. However, it will give investors an idea of how households are faring as rising price pressures erode purchasing power.
In corporate news, Rivian (NASDAQ:) posted a massive fourth-quarter net loss of $2.46 billion after Thursday’s close, and the electric vehicle maker halved its production plan for this year due to supply chain issues.
Oracle (NYSE:) is forecasting strong fourth-quarter earnings as the software company expects its massive investment in cloud technology to pay off, while DocuSign (NASDAQ:) posted weak first-quarter and fiscal-year earnings guidance.
In addition, Google (NASDAQ:) and Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook (NASDAQ:), will be in the spotlight after regulators in the EU and UK launched an antitrust investigation into the pair over the pair’s 2018 advertising deal. .
Oil prices traded higher on Friday as talks to lift sanctions on Iran were put on hold, further delaying the possibility of oil from the Gulf state entering the global market.
That being said, the market still looks poised for the biggest weekly drop since November 2021 amid uncertainty over global production levels.
By 7:00 AM ET, futures traded 1.4% higher to $107.50 a barrel, heading for a weekly fall of about 8% after hitting a high of $130.50, while the contract rose 1.6 % to $111.09, with a weekly fall of about 7% after hitting a 14-year high of $139.13.
In addition, they fell 0.9% to $1982.65 an ounce while trading up 0.3% to 1.1011.