The Dow Jones Industrial Average trades roughly 430 points higher at just above 53,200, taking back the larger part of a Thursday decline that ran close to 690 points.
The session low printed in the 52,800 area inside the opening stretch, and the index has ground higher in almost every hour since, changing hands within a handful of points of the 53,250 area that marks the session high
The catalyst was a preliminary August activity survey that beat hard on services and missed on manufacturing, and the equity market read the composite as an all-clear on growth. The bond market read the same page and sold the long end again, which is precisely the arrangement that produced this week’s drawdown in the first place. The print that removes the escape route The preliminary August composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) printed 56 against a 54.5 prior, the strongest expansion on the series since April 2022.
Services drove it at 56.8 against a 54 consensus, the sharpest reading in that sector since December 2024, while manufacturing missed at 53.2 against 53.9 and goods output ran at a 13-month low. Delivery times lengthened and backlogs built across both sectors. An economy expanding at a 56 composite does not need the policy help this equity market has spent the summer demanding, and it gives a committee that has held five times in a row no reason to supply it.