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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened higher on Friday, with short-covering the order of the day after volatile week dominated by recession fears.
By 9:44 AM ET (1344 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 243 points, or 0.8%, at 31,496 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.0%.
However, the main indices are still on course for their lowest weekly close in a year and a half, after a sequence of poor earnings reports from the retail sector pointed to growth slowing under the weight of inflation.
Federal Reserve officials have also squashed any incipient hopes that they might ride to the market’s rescue by not raising rates as far and as fast as currently expected. Kansas City Fed President Esther George and Minnesota’s Neel Kashkari – who are at the opposing ends of the hawk-dove policy spectrum, both played down suggestions that the stock market’s woes will make it relax its policy.
Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) added to the general malaise in retail, falling 21% to a four-year low after publishing its quarterly numbers on Thursday evening. Ross said it faces an “increasingly uncertain macro-economic and geopolitical environment” and now expects comparable sales to fall this year, having earlier expected modest growth.
Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) stock fared better, opening 7.9% higher after a reassuringly solid quarter.
