LIVE MARKETS-US stocks rise amid legal tariff wrangling; PCE next on the docket

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US STOCKS RISE AMID LEGAL TARIFF WRANGLING; PCE NEXT ON THE DOCKET

Wall Street's main stock indexes ended modestly higher on Thursday after a federal court ruling blocked most of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs late on Wednesday. But then by Thursday afternoon, a U.S. appeals court reinstated the tariffs.

Meanwhile, after posting strong revenue growth, Nvidia .NVDA.O rose more than 3% on the day. That said, despite the AI-chipmaker's strength, in general, semiconductor shares were relatively muted. The Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX rose just 0.5%.

Nearly all S&P 500 sectors ended higher with defensive groups including real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU among those posting the biggest gains. Real estate led the way, up about 1%. Communication services .SPLRCL, which dipped just 0.35%, was the only group to finish red.

And after being greeted by an economic triple play on Thursday, none of which was particularly sunny, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR was a bit more decisive. The yield, which had hit an intraday high of 4.539% tumbled to as low as 4.416%. It's now around 4.43%.

In any event, the main indexes are all on track to score strong monthly gains. In fact, the Nasdaq .IXIC, up 9.9% MTD, and S&P 500, up 6.2% MTD, are both on track to score their biggest monthly rallies since November 2023.

Still, with one trading day to go in May, investors are now turning their attention back to inflation with the April PCE report due on Friday. The PCE price index month-over-month is expected at 0.1% vs 0.0% last month. The year-over-year print is forecast to be 2.2% vs 2.3% last month.

Here is a snapshot of where markets stood just shortly after 4 p.m. ET:

(Terence Gabriel)

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