MARKET SNAPSHOT

U.S. stocks climbed Friday as traders weighed the latest new tariffs on drugs, trucks and furniture. Treasury yields were mixed Friday, but rose for the week. Oil prices rose as Ukraine continues to hit Russian oil infrastructure. Gold prices kept going higher, while the dollar weakened.

MARKET WRAPS

EQUITIES

Stocks climbed Friday, with investors looking past sticky inflation data and President Trump's new round of tariffs.

Major indexes snapped a three-day losing streak. The S&P advanced about 0.6%, while the Dow industrials gained 0.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.4%.

The personal-consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, showed that price pressures remained stubbornly above the central bank's 2% target last month. Still, Friday's report was in line with expectations, easing concerns that inflation might be accelerating.

Traders continue to expect two additional rate reductions from the Fed in October and December after Friday's report. Fresh economic reports this week underscored the U.S. economy's resilience after the Fed cut the benchmark borrowing rate by 0.25 percentage point last week.

For the week, all three indexes closed in the red. The Dow slipped 0.1%, and the S&P fell 0.3%. The Nasdaq declined 0.7%.

"The market is treading water at this stage. It's looking for a reason to move higher or lower," said Stephen Kylander, senior portfolio manager at Pallas Capital Advisors. "The data that's been released suggests that we're not going to get rate cuts that are in excess of where the current expectations are."

Earlier Friday, Chinese markets closed lower, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.65%. The Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 1.5%, and the tech-focused ChiNext Price Index saw a 2.6% decline.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 1.4% lower amid tech weakness.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gave back 0.9%, weighed by chip and pharmaceutical stocks.

Stocks in Australia rose, as the S&P/ASX 200 increased 0.2%.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 declined 0.3%.

COMMODITIES

Crude futures closed the week higher, spurred by continuing Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil infrastructure and the prospect of additional EU and U.S. sanctions that raised concerns of supply constraint.

Oil prices saw significant weekly gains, with West Texas Intermediate $(WTI)$ closing up 1.1% at $65.72 a barrel, marking a 5.3% increase for the week and its highest close since early August. Brent crude also rose, settling up 1% at $70.13 a barrel, for a 5.2% gain on the week.

Executives polled Sept. 10-18 by the Dallas Fed lowered their average year-end WTI price expectation to $63.06 a barrel from $68.18 in the second-quarter survey. Responses ranged from $50 to $80 a barrel, with 43% seeing the year-end price between $60 and $64.99, and 33% between $65 and $69.99.

Front-month silver futures settled up 3.4% to $46.221 a troy ounce. The white metal closes out the week with an 8.7% gain, the most it's risen in a week since October 2011.

Gold also had a strong showing, with the front-month contract closing up 1% to $3,775.30 per troy ounce. That makes it six straight weeks that gold futures have closed out the week on a positive note.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

Inflation rises again, PCE shows, but not enough to alarm the Fed

The numbers: A key measure of inflation rose at a slightly elevated pace in August, but not enough to suggest much bigger increases tied to U.S. tariffs are on the way.

The latest price report is likely to reassure top officials at the Federal Reserve that inflation is still relatively well contained despite an uptick since the spring stemming in part from much higher U.S. tariffs.

The PCE index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, rose 0.3% in August, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Friday.

Consumer Sentiment Fell in September, According to University of Michigan Survey

Views on the economy dropped this month as worries about high prices and the labor market weighed on household sentiment, the University of Michigan's consumer survey found.

The monthly survey's sentiment index fell to 55.1 in September, from 58.2 in August. An early September estimate had shown the index declining to 55.4.

The monthly decline sees sentiment sliding back toward a low touched in April, when the initial rollout of President Trump's steep bilateral tariffs darkened the economic outlook. Lately, consumers have cited the labor market as another concern, as hiring sputters and job creation has tumbled to a far lower monthly rate than earlier in the year.

Videogame Giant Electronic Arts Nears Roughly $50 Billion Deal to Go Private

Videogame maker Electronic Arts is in advanced talks to go private in a roughly $50 billion deal that would likely be the largest leveraged buyout of all time, according to people familiar with the matter.

A group of investors including private-equity firm Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners could unveil a deal for the publisher best known for its sports games as soon as next week, the people said.

EA has long made games including FIFA, the soccer videogame now known as FC, and the football game Madden NFL as well as The Sims and other titles.

Boeing Clears Key Hurdle From 737 MAX Crashes

Federal regulators are scaling back obstacles for Boeing to deliver some of its newly produced aircraft to customers, a hopeful sign for the plane maker's recovery from a string of crises.

Boeing is regaining authority from the Federal Aviation Administration to perform final safety checks on its 737 MAX jets starting next week, the agency said.

Employees of the aerospace giant would regain the authority to perform safety signoffs on alternating weeks, the FAA said Friday. FAA inspectors will remain involved in issuing so-called airworthiness certificates, which are required for each aircraft to be able to fly with passengers.

Banks Ordered to Dig Through Account Closures to Find 'Debanking' Cases

Banks are racing to respond to regulators' broad requests for information on whether they closed customer accounts or denied people service on political or religious grounds.

The sweeping demands are part of President Trump's crackdown on alleged discrimination by banks, a practice dubbed debanking, which he has said targeted conservatives. Regulators are working with the Justice Department, which is looking for any violations of civil-rights laws including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is expected to send out letters to large banks as soon as this week, asking for information that could go back a number of years, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Trump Takes Aim at Chip Makers With New Plan to Throttle Imports

The Trump administration is weighing a new plan to reduce dramatically the U.S.'s reliance on semiconductors made overseas, hoping to spur domestic manufacturing and reshape global supply chains.

The policy's goal is to have chip companies manufacture the same number of semiconductors in the U.S. as their customers import from overseas producers. Companies that don't maintain a 1:1 ratio over time would have to pay a tariff, according to people familiar with the concept.

The plan is the result of what President Trump referred to last month when he said tech companies that invest more in the U.S. would avoid roughly 100% tariffs on semiconductors, the people said. Matching capacity of domestic chips with imports is a taller order than simply increasing domestic investments because overseas products are often cheaper, supply chains are difficult to tweak, and increasing U.S. supply takes time.

Expected Major Events for Monday

04:00/MAL: Aug PPI

05:00/JPN: Jul Indexes of Business Conditions - Revision

07:00/THA: Aug Industrial Production Index

08:59/JPN: Sep Monthly Economic Report

23:00/SKA: Aug Service Industry Activity Index

23:00/SKA: Aug Industrial Production Index

23:50/JPN: Aug Preliminary Retail Sales

23:50/JPN: Aug Preliminary Industrial Production

00:00/NZ: Sep ANZ Business Outlook

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 28, 2025 16:30 ET (20:30 GMT)

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