Investing.com – As investors prepared for a long three-day weekend due to the Fourth of July holiday on Monday, Wall Street traded up for a fourth consecutive day on Friday after positive manufacturing data and amid several comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials with voting rights on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
At 15:55GMT or 11:55AM ET, the Dow 30 gained 39 points, or 0.22%, the S&P 500 rose 6 points, or 0.27%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 25 points, or 0.52%.
The ISM manufacturing activity index rose to a 16-month high in June and beat consensus expectations, according to the data released on Friday.
However, ISM chair Bradley Holcomb warned that the most of the survey data was collected prior to the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, known as a Brexit, and clarified that the improvement still failed to show “robust” activity.
In any case, Holcomb noted that the U.K. was a relatively small U.S. trading partner.
Meanwhile, several voting members of the Fed made comments on the Brexit.
After the market close on Thursday, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president James Bullard said that the U.S. monetary authority would only need one rate hike and played down concern over the impact of the Brexit on the U.S. economy.
In a similar fashion, Fed vice chairman Stanley Fischer said on Friday that the impact of the Brexit would probably be smaller than for others and told CNBC that the U.S. central bank would have better knowledge by the July meeting.
Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester warned that “policymakers cannot let the lack of economic clarity distract us from our important mission” and suggested that waiting too long on hiking interest rates entailed risk.
Markets were still dismissing the possibility of the Fed hiking rates this year on Friday, with the odds reaching only 13.8% for the December meeting. The probability for a 25 basis point cut at the July meeting had dropped to 1.2%, with the rest of the bets on them holding steady.
The dollar was also headed lower on Friday. Specifically, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.26% at 95.70, at 15:57GMT or 11:57AM ET.
Meanwhile, despite concern over the return of increased output from U.S. shale oil, crude managed to crawl forward on Friday with some of the blame placed on the drop in the dollar, which makes black gold cheaper for buyers using other currencies.
U.S. crude futures rose 23% to $48.44 by 15:59MT or 11:59AM ET, while Brent oil gained 0.26% to $49.84.
In company news, Micron (NASDAQ:MU) plunged near 9% after the semiconductor firm reported worse-than-expected sales.
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) was ordered to pay $3 billion in damages to Hewlett-Packard in a lithium case.
Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) jumped 5% after Cannacord Genuity gave the company a buy rating with a price target of $120, more than 30% above its prior session closing price.
In M&A activity, Lions Gate Entertainment announced the acquisition of Starz for $4.4 billion.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was reportedly looking into buying Jay Z’s music service Tidal, according to Dow Jones.
Disney was said to be looking to purchase a 33% stake in Major League Baseball’s video unit.
Thor Industries said it would pick up Jayco Co. for $576 million.
Newell Brands completed the sale of its window coverings business to Hunter Douglas for $270 million.
Steel Dynamics announced it would pick up Vulcan Threaded products for $126 million.