• Dow Jones chalked in further gains on Friday as investors sentiment climbs.
• Equities are on pace for one of their best weeks of the year.
• Consumer sentiment indicators ticked higher on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) notched in 100 points on the high side on Friday after kicking the day off on the low side. Bids tested low early in the day before recovering the 40,500.00 level and investors are knocking on one of the index’s best single-week performances of the year to-date.

The Dow Jones is up nearly 4% from Monday’s opening prices as investors find the buy button after improving US economic data helped trader slough off broad fears of a US recession. The University of Michigan’s August Consumer Sentiment Index improved to 67.8, well above the previous 66.4 and beat the forecast 66.9.

Improving consumer sentiment indicators helped to bolster investor confidence further, despite UoM 5-year Consumer Inflation Expectations holding firmly at 3.0% MoM in August. Bets of a double cut from the Federal Reserve (Fed) in September have eased to just 25%, down from last week’s peak of 70%, but markets are still fully pricing in some form of rate movement on September 18, with rate markets putting odds of a 25 bps rate cut at 75%.