(Bloomberg) — Stock futures advanced as confidence in the economic rebound overshadowed concern about faster inflation.
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Earlier Friday, S&P 500 contracts briefly pared gains after the personal consumption expenditures price index — which the Federal Reserve uses for its inflation target — had the largest annual increase since 1991. The U.S. dollar fell and Treasuries fluctuated. Bitcoin jumped toward its biggest daily gain since July.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to try again Friday for a vote on bipartisan infrastructure legislation that’s been held up by a battle between moderate and progressive Democrats over President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. Meantime, the debt ceiling standoff is starting to be taken more seriously by markets with only 17 days left to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s deadline for a deal to avoid default.
Favoring stocks in some U.S. industries and avoiding others mattered less in the third quarter than it has in decades. A comparison of the S&P 500’s main groups shows as much.
The biggest gain was 2.3%, posted by financial stocks, and the largest drop was 4.6% for industrial shares. The gap of 6.9 percentage points between first and last place was the smallest in any quarter since the sector indexes were first calculated in 1989, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The prior record was 8.1 points, set in 1989’s third quarter.
Some corporate highlights:
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Cryptocurrency-exposed stocks like Riot Blockchain Inc. and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. joined a rally in Bitcoin.
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Merck & Co.’s Covid-19 antiviral pill reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50% in an interim analysis of a late-stage trial.
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Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Five9 Inc. scrapped their $14.7 billion merger agreement.
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Southwest Airlines Co. was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
For more market analysis, read our MLIV blog.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
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Futures on the S&P 500 rose 0.4% as of 9:08 a.m. New York time
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Futures on the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%
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Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
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The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2%
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The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
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The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
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The euro rose 0.2% to $1.1600
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The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.3543
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The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 111.09 per dollar
Bonds
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The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 1.49%
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Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to -0.23%
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Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 1.00%
Commodities
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Read More: Stock Futures Rise, Dollar Falls; Bonds Fluctuate: Markets Wrap