US STOCKS-Wall St inches up on megacap strength; Fed Chair Warsh reaffirms inflation fight

Wall Street's main indexes inched up on Friday, powered by gains in megacap stocks, while Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh reiterated the central bank's focus on bringing inflation down in his first Jackson Hole speech.

Without confidence that inflation is ‌heading clearly and with sufficient speed to the Fed's 2% goal, the central bank would have "more work to do," Warsh said. Traders added to bets on a September rate hike after Warsh also said he felt recent inflation data did not suggest a change in trend.

The traders are now split between a rate hike and a hold in September, as they were before inflation data ‌this month painted a mixed picture. "Why the market is modestly reacting is he (Warsh) is very adamant that the 2% inflation target is going to remain. He is reiterating the ‌hawkishness, but in a more of a consistent way than an incremental way," said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist for Nationwide.

"There's been somewhat misguided thoughts among investors that this would soften a little bit. Clearly, that's not the case." Warsh's speech rounds out a busy week packed with results from corporate heavyweights such as Nvidia and Salesforce, alongside a batch of fresh economic data.

Chip stocks were mixed, pulling back from the previous session's rally sparked by ⁠Nvidia's blockbuster forecast ​that signaled the AI-driven boom had further to ⁠run. Nvidia slipped 1.9%. Marvell Technology lost 7.8% on doubts over the timing of revenue from its AI chip agreement with Alphabet's Google despite an increase to its 2027 revenue forecast.

At 11:20 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial ⁠Average rose 228.41 points, or 0.43%, to 53,797.85, the S&P 500 gained 33.84 points, or 0.44%, to 7,764.83 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 108.01 points, or 0.41%, to 26,649.37. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely known ​as Wall Street's "fear gauge", briefly touched its lowest level since December. It was last down 0.34 points at 14.17.

Most megacap stocks were higher. Alphabet and Meta gained 1.9% ⁠and 2.3%, respectively, making the S&P 500 communication services sector the biggest boost to the index. They also helped the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Salesforce extended gains from the previous session, boosting the Dow. The stock was up 4%.

PayPal fell 11.7% after ⁠Bloomberg ​News reported on Thursday that a consortium of buyout firm Advent and payment processor Stripe had decided to abandon their pursuit of the payments firm. Gap's shares advanced 13.7% as the company named industry veteran Michael Francis as Old Navy's new CEO and it raised its annual profit forecast.

Ulta Beauty fell 3.6% after the cosmetics retailer's comparable sales growth dropped in ⁠the second quarter. Wall Street's main indexes are still on track for weekly gains. If levels hold through close, the indexes could claw back ground lost last week after surging bond ⁠yields hammered stocks.

Separately, the final reading of the ⁠University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey stood at 51.7, compared with estimates of 51, according to economists polled by Reuters. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.12-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.24-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week ‌highs and two new lows, while ‌the Nasdaq Composite recorded 41 new highs and 68 new lows.