Stocks Cut Losses for Week After Tariff, Inflation News

US stocks climbed Friday and trimmed their losses for the week after a report showed that inflation is behaving roughly as economists expected, even if it's still high.

• The Dow rose 299.97 points, or 0.7%, to 46,247.29, closing the week down 0.1%.
• The S&P 500 rose 38.98 points, or 0.6%, to 6,643.70, down 0.3% for the week.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 99.37 points, or 0.4%, to 22,484.07, down 0.7% for the week.

Stocks got some help from a report showing that inflation accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.6% in July, according to the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use, the AP reports. While that's above the Fed's 2% target, and it's more painful than any household would like, it was precisely what economists had forecast. That offered some hope that the Fed could continue cutting interest rates in order to give the economy a boost. That's critical for Wall Street because it's already sent US stocks on a blistering run to records from a low in April in large part because of expectations for a string of rate cuts.

One factor threatening to push inflation higher is President Trump's tariffs, and he announced more on Thursday. They include taxes on imports of some pharmaceutical drugs, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, upholstered furniture, and heavy trucks. Details were few, leaving analysts unsure of their ultimate effects, and the announcement created ripples in the US stock market instead of huge waves. Paccar, the company behind the Peterbilt and Kenworth truck brands, revved 5.2% higher, for example. Big pharmaceutical companies nudged higher: Eli Lilly rose 1.4%, and Pfizer added 0.7%. Home furnishings companies, including Williams-Sonoma and RH, were up and down.

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The losing side included Costco Wholesale, which fell 2.9% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Renewal rates for its membership slowed a touch, while an important measure of underlying revenue growth at its stores fell short of analysts' expectations.