Inflation keeps slowing and the Dow Jones Industrial Average keeps breaking records.
The blue-chip index on Friday logged an all-time high for the 32nd time this year after the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge showed price pressures continued cooling last month. Led Friday by biotech giant Amgen and oil producer Chevron, the Dow is on track for its best September performance since 2012.
In China, markets rounded off a bumper week with a bang. Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 4.5% Friday, ending the week 16% higher, its biggest weekly advance since 2008. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index notched its largest weekly increase since 1998.
Ignited by the government’s unexpected push to juice China’s ailing economy, the market rally has rippled abroad. Luxury stocks, emerging markets and industrial metals–all sensitive to Chinese demand–have jumped.
Stocks were mixed. The Dow rose 0.3%, or 138 points, to 42313. But the S&P 500 tipped 0.1% lower and the tech-heavy Nasdaq faded downward by 0.4%. All three indexes notched weekly gains.
Inflation cooled in August. The personal-consumption expenditures price index, or PCE, showed prices rose 2.2% in August from a year earlier. The closely watched core index excluding food and energy prices rose 2.7%.
Ten-year Treasury yields edged lower, with the 10-year yield settling at 3.751%.
Gold kept climbing this week to $2,644.30 a troy ounce. The metal is on track for its largest one-quarter net gain on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The dollar weakened. The greenback traded near its lowest value against a basket of currencies since July 2023.
Oil prices edged higher, with benchmark U.S. crude trading at $68.18 a barrel, after a sharp turn lower in recent days.
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Read More: Dow Rises to Record; Chinese Indexes Post Best Week in Years