Stocks rise as Dow pushes for an 8-day winning streak: Live updates

Inflation this year will run well above the Federal Reserve’s target and remain elevated for the next several years, according to a consensus forecast released Friday from some of Wall Street’s biggest economic names.

The Philadelphia Fed’s quarterly Survey of Professional Forecasters puts core inflation as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index — the central bank’s preferred measure — at 2.9% through 2024. That’s well above the previous forecast of 2.1% and the Fed’s 2% target.

The outlook is even less optimistic when measured by the consumer price index, which is expected to average 2.5% over the next five years and 2.33% over the next 10 years, with both forecasts also above previous outlooks.

The 34 participants in the survey include economists Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs, Ellen Zentner at Morgan Stanley and Michael Feroli at JPMorgan Chase among other luminous Wall Street forecasters.

—Jeff Cox

Alphabet shares slipped more than 1% before the bell following a Reuters report that OpenAI could unveil a competitor to Google search.

The report, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the announcement could come Monday.

— Samantha Subin

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.

Akamai Technologies — Shares of the cloud company fell more than 10% after issuing weak guidance for the second quarter. Akamai sees adjusted earnings ranging from $1.51 to $1.56 per share on revenue of $967 million to $986 million. Analysts polled by LSEG forecasted earnings of $1.63 per share and revenue of $1 billion.

Sweetgreen — The salad chain popped 5% after Sweetgreen reported first-quarter revenue of $158 million, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $152 million. The revenue forecast was basically in line with expectations.

Array Technologies – The solar energy stock rallied nearly 17%. Array’s first-quarter adjusted earnings came in at 6 cents per share on revenue of $153.4 million. Analysts polled by FactSet called for a loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of $141.2 million.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

Novavax shares surged 125% in premarket trading after announcing it signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Sanofi to co-commercialize its Covid vaccine starting next year.

The biotech company will also develop combination shots targeting the coronavirus and flu. The licensing agreement allows Novavax to lift the “going concern” warning it issued in February 2023 on concerns over its ability to continue operating.

Sanofi will pay Novavax an upfront payment of $500 million and up to $700 million in additional. That total is roughly double Novavax’s current market cap of $627 million.

— Annika Kim Constantino, Michelle Fox

Zeekr, a Chinese EV maker backed by Geely, priced its IPO at $21 per share, implying the company is looking to raise more than $400 million in its U.S. public market debut.

The company on Friday will trade under the ticker ZK at the New York Stock Exchange. The offering also sits at the top end of Zeekr’s expected range of $18 to $21, according to a regulatory filing from earlier this month.

“Through developing and offering next-generation premium BEVs and technology-driven solutions, we aspire to lead the electrification, intelligentization and innovation of the automobile industry,” the company said in its SEC filing.

— Fred Imbert, Sam Subin

European markets opened higher on Friday as positive momentum continued into the end of the week and the U.K. posted first-quarter gross domestic product that was better than expected.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.52% higher at 8:08 a.m. London time. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was last up by 0.41%, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.39% and France’s CAC 40 was 0.45% higher.

— Sophie Kiderlin

India’s interest rates are likely to stay “higher for longer” and the status quo could remain for “some time to go,” according to State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara.

The Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to follow the timeline of other central banks, he said.

“India’s central bank will probably decouple from the rest of the central banks,” Khara told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday, explaining that inflation in the country had dipped below 5%.

In April, the RBI held its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 6.5% for its seventh meeting in a row.

— Charmaine Jacob

Singapore’s second-largest bank OCBC posted record first-quarter revenue and profit, with total income rising 8% year on year to 3.63 billion Singapore dollars ($2.68 billion) and net profit climbing 5% year on year to SG$1.98 billion.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue rose 11%, while net profit surged 22%. OCBC cited a “robust performance across all segments,” highlighting that its banking operations profit was at a record high, supported by higher wealth management income and assets under management.

Separately, OCBC also offered SG$1.4 billion to privatize its insurance subsidiary Great Eastern.

The company will buy the 11.56% stake in the insurer that it does not currently own at SG$25.60 per share, representing a 36.9% premium over Great Eastern’s last traded price of SG$18.70.

HSBC said it now expects Xiaomi to break even on its recently launched electric vehicle, the SU7, sooner than previously projected.

The bank predicted the EV will hit 685 million Chinese yuan ($94.8 million) in net profit by the end of 2026, versus its prior expectation of about 810 million yuan by 2028.

HSBC is bullish on Xiaomi’s EV shipments over the next two years, citing the company’s higher-than-expected order backlog of over 88,000 units and strong deliveries of over 7,000 units, as of April 30.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched its SU7 EV just ahead of the Easter holiday this year.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

The percentage of individual investors who are neutral — neither bullish nor bearish — about the outlook for stock prices over the coming six months widened to 35.4% from 29% in the latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors, the highest such reading since last September and above the historical average of 31.5%.

Bullishness rose to 40.8% from 38.5%, above the historical average of 37.5% for the 26th time in 27 weeks.

Bearish sentiment slumped to 23.8% of those polled, down from 32.5% last week and the historical average of 31%. It was the first time in four weeks that pessimism was below its historical average.

Contrarians who like to bet against the crowd say that rising bullishness means investors have less cash to put to work in the market and have less buying in front of them than behind them. Rising bearishness means the reverse — there’s more money to invest and more selling has been done.

— Scott Schnipper

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading.

• Yelp — Shares of the restaurant review site slid 6% as Yelp posted light second-quarter revenue guidance. The company reported first-quarter earnings of 20 cents a share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 6 cents a share, per LSEG. Revenue for the period came in line with expectations, however, at $333 million.
• Sweetgreen — The salad chain popped 5% after Sweetgreen reported first-quarter revenue of $158 million, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $152 million. Earnings were not immediately comparable with estimates.
• Akamai Technologies — The cloud company slid nearly 9%, tumbling on the back of weak guidance for the second quarter. Akamai sees adjusted earnings ranging from $1.51 to $1.56 per share on revenue of $967 million to $986 million. Analysts polled by LSEG called for earnings of $1.63 per share and revenue of $1 billion.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures opened little changed.

Futures linked to the 30-stock Dow rose by 33 points, or 0.08%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.04%, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.04%.

— Sarah Min