Stock Market Today: Stocks higher as Wall Street looks to bounce back

Stock futures were moving higher Friday after Wall Street was rattled by inflation data.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.15% to 38,971, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.19% to 5,163.50, while the tech-laden Nasdaq rose 0.12% to 18,046.75.

Stocks finished lower in the previous session after the producer-price index came in higher than expected. The Dow slipped 0.35%, the S&P 500 lost 0.29% and the Nasdaq gave up 0.3%.

“PPI came in much hotter than expected, driven primarily by energy costs which were up 4.4% on the month,” said Rob Swanke, senior equity strategist for Commonwealth Financial Network. “Energy prices had seen some significant declines over the past three months, so seeing a bounce back is reasonable.”

Swanke said that the Federal Reserve has been keeping a closer eye on some services demand, which rose 0.3% during the month, a decrease from the prior month.

“Services demand has continued to benefit from lower trade prices as we import lower inflation from abroad,” he said. “Overall, following the CPI print earlier this week, this likely continues to provide support for the Fed remaining on pause for the next few meetings and the 10-year is rising slightly on this print.”

The Fed's policy-making Federal Open Market Committee holds its regular monthly meeting this Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged at the March 19-20 meeting for the fifth straight time, Bloomberg reported.

In company news, shares of Adobe  (ADBE)  closed 12% lower after-hours Thursday and were starting Friday off in the red after the graphics-software company beat Wall Street's first-quarter estimates but offered disappointing guidance.

McDonald’s  (MCD)  said on Friday that a technology outage had disrupted operations at many of its outlets worldwide, including Japan and Australia, but said it wasn't a cybersecurity incident, Reuters reported.

Many McDonald's stores in Japan stopped taking in-person and mobile customer orders because of the system disruption, a spokesperson at McDonald's Holdings Company Japan said, adding that the company was working to restore operations soon.

Tesla  (TSLA)  shares were up 1% after the electric vehicle maker closed down 4.1% on Thursday.

Apple  (AAPL)  bought artificial intelligence (AI) startup DarwinAI and added dozens of the Canadian company's staffers to its AI division, Bloomberg News reported.

The iPhone maker purchased the business earlier this year, the report stated, citing people familiar with the matter. The report did not mention the deal value.

DarwinAI has developed AI technology for visually inspecting components during the manufacturing process and serves customers in a range of industries

On Friday the market will be looking out for data on consumer sentiment and industrial production.

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