Stock market today: Dow ends higher in choppy week as earnings, Fed worries sway

By Yasin Ebrahim                                                                                                

Investing.com -- The Dow closed higher Friday, ending a turbulent of week of wild swings as mixed quarterly earnings and the Fed's aggressive rate-hike path continued to dominate investor attention.  

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%, or 176 points, the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.6%.  

Energy rose more than 2%, underpinned by rising oil prices after Russia hinted at cutting oil prices to offset the price cap imposed by the European Union and G7 nations.

Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES), Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), and APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA), were among the biggest gainers, with the latter up nearly 6% on the day. 

In big tech, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the biggest gainer, up nearly 2%, after Citi said YouTube's deal to exclusively stream the National Football League's Sunday Ticket could boost subscriber growth.

The deal “deepens YouTube’s overall content strategy in a key live sports vertical," Citi said.

Meta (NASDAQ:META), meanwhile, rose nearly 1% reaching an $825 million settlement with users of its Facebook platform following a privacy lawsuit that claimed the social media shared user data with Cambridge Analytica.

Economic data shows that in-line inflation also calms investor jitters about a rate-trigger-happy Fed.

The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, which excludes food and energy and is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, rose 0.2% in November, in-line with estimates.

Signs of easing price pressures are a welcome step in the right direction, Stifel said, though added that the “painfully slow pace of retreat continues to underscore the fact that there is more work [for the Fed].”

In consumer stocks, CarMax (NYSE:KMX) clawed back some of its losses from a day earlier following quarterly results that fell short of estimates.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), however, struggled to hold onto premarket gains even as Elon Musk said he wouldn’t sell Tesla stock for 18 to 24 months. Fears are growing that the EV maker is facing a challenging period, particularly on the demand after slashing prices for its top EVs.

“Based on higher inventory levels, recent price cuts, and overall production slowdowns in China it is becoming clearer based on our work that Tesla will likely miss reduced Street estimates for 4Q with a softer trajectory for 2023,” Wedbush said in a note

On the political front, The U.S. House of Representatives passed the $1.7 trillion bill to fund government operations on Friday by a vote of 255-201, paving the way for President Joe Biden to sign it into law.