April 11 - The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained on Thursday after softer-than-anticipated producer prices data soothed investor jitters about sticky inflation, keeping hopes of rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve this year alive.
"Some of this will flow through to PCE in a couple weeks, so the PCE might be a little bit better than expected." Several brokerages have shifted their rate-cut outlooks, with UBS Global Wealth Management now expecting the Fed to start cutting interest rates in September, compared to June earlier, while BNP Paribas anticipates the first cut in July.Futures contracts that settle to the central bank's policy rate still point to the Fed's September meeting as the most likely starting point to rate cuts.
The first-quarter earnings season will pick up pace on Friday, when a trio of big banks - JPMorgan Chase & Co , opens new tab, Citigroup , opens new tab and Wells Fargo , opens new tab - is slated to post quarterly results. Among single stocks, biotech firm Alpine Immune Sciences , opens new tab is set to be acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals , opens new tab for about $4.9 billion in cash, both companies said. Alpine surged 36.4%.