US stocks rose in early trade on Friday as traders stepped in to pick up a few bargains at the end of the week.
At 1450 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.3%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were ahead 1.5% and 1.9%, respectively.
Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: “It hasn’t been the blockbuster week that last was. But that’s only natural, last week we had a wrath of big central bank meetings and rate announcements. This week, policymakers have been out there reaffirming their positions, offering nothing new of note that will shift the dial in the markets.
“Which is probably a good thing considering the scale of the losses that we’ve seen this month. We remain where we were a week ago, central banks are mostly determined to get a grip on inflation, even if that means tipping their economies into recession. There are plenty more super-sized rate hikes to come over the summer.”
Still to come on the macro front, investors were eyeing the release of new home sales data for May at 1500 BST, as well as the Michigan consumer sentiment index for June.
In corporate news, Zendesk surged after the San Francisco-based software maker agreed to be bought by an investor group led by private equity firms Permira and Hellman & Friedman in a $10.2bn all-cash deal. Under the terms of the agreement, Zendesk shareholders will receive $77.50 per share, which is a premium of around 34% to the closing share price on Thursday.
FedEx also rallied after the parcel delivery company’s full-year profit forecast came in better than expected, while cruise operator Carnival rose after well-received second-quarter results.
Elsewhere, banks were in focus, with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America both trading up after the Federal Reserve announced late on Thursday that all banks had passed its annual stress test.
