Wall Street stocks largely shrugged off lackluster US consumer data on Friday, concluding a winning week mostly higher amid increased hopes of an easing in monetary policy.
Following an up day in Europe in which leading bourses hit all-time highs, the Dow rose for the eighth straight session in New York.
The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment tumbled 13 percent to 67.4 for April, its lowest mark since November, with more consumers expressing worries about inflation, unemployment and interest rates.
The data comes on the heels of an uptick in weekly US jobless claims released on Thursday.
Analysts have pointed to a tendency among investors to greet weaker data as boosting the odds of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
A note from Oxford Economics said the US labor market has been a “key…
