Friday's early trade: stocks up as weak GDP spurs hope of slower rate hikes

Wall Street was higher on Friday after weak GDP data raised expectations that the US Federal Reserve would go slow on future interest rate hikes. The market was also supported by the Bank of Japan's surprise move to lower a key interest rate below zero. Intervention by central banks has become key to supporting turbulent markets, roiled by slowing global economic growth.
While the Fed has not ruled out another rate hike in March, the current turmoil and weak data could force it to wait until June. US gross domestic product rose 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, below the 0.8 percent expected, as a strong dollar and tepid global demand hurt exports. "The news out of Japan has given some help to the market, but there's really no particular news that should make us go higher other than, obviously, the GDP data coming in very weak," said Mohannad Aama, managing director, Beam Capital Management in New York.
Investors are still reeling from one of the worst starts to a year as oil prices remain under pressure and fears of a China-led global slowdown grow. US stocks have failed to sustain several rallies in 2016 and are yet to post gains for three days in a row. The S&P 500 has shed 7.4 percent this year through Thursday's close. The S&P and the Dow were set to close January with their worst performance since 2010, while the Nasdaq was on track for its worst month since 2008.
At 11:05 am ET (1605 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 215.52 points, or 1.34 percent, at 16,285.16, the S&P 500 was up 22.31 points, or 1.18 percent, at 1,915.67 and the Nasdaq Composite index was up 50.98 points, or 1.13 percent, at 4,557.65. Microsoft was up 4.9 percent at $54.60 on the software giant's better-than-expected results. The stock was the biggest influence on all three indexes. Chevron's shares were down 1.6 percent at $84.55, after the oil major reported its first quarterly loss in more than 13 years. Amazon was down 8.8 percent at $580.40, after the company's quarterly profit fell way below expectations. Xerox was up 5.4 percent to $9.72, after announcing a deal with Carl Icahn to split the company into two.