U.S. stocks rise as investors try to put hawkish Fed comments behind them

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were rising as investors tried to shake off concerns about further interest rate hikes and new data on home sales showed a continued slowdown.

At 10:32 ET (15:32 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 99 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.1%.

Stocks have been falling this week after comments from Federal Reserve officials that suggest interest rates will continue to rise as the central bank tries to tame inflation.

On Thursday St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the benchmark rate would have to move higher to tame inflation, perhaps reaching 7%, which is higher than expectations.

Existing home sales fell 5.9% from the prior month, more evidence the housing market is cooling as would-be home buyers shy away from mortgage interest rates that haven’t been this high in years. The average 30 year fixed rate loan was around 6.6% last week. Housing starts fell 4.2% from the prior month.

Shares of Foot Locker Inc (NYSE:FL) rose 10% after the athletic apparel retailer beat expectations and said same-store sales rose 0.8% even though analysts expected a drop of 6%. 

Palo Alto Networks Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) shares rose 8% after beating expectations and raising its profit outlook. The cybersecurity company is benefitting from demand for its services.

Oil was falling. Crude Oil WTI Futures was down 3.2% to $79 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures crude was down 3.1% to $87.04 a barrel. Gold Futureswas down 0.3% to $1758.