Top Midday Stories: Fed's Preferred Inflation Gauge Tops Estimates; Nippon Ups Offer for US Steel Upgrades to $7 Billion

11:56 AM EDT, 03/28/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Nasdaq Composite was down over 2% while the Dow Jones and S&P 500 were down past 1% in late-morning trading Friday after February inflation data came in higher than expected and investors continue to grapple with tariff uncertainty.

The personal consumption expenditures price index rose by 0.3% in February, as expected in a survey conducted by Bloomberg as of 7:45 a.m. ET. The core PCE price index, which excludes food and energy prices, increased by 0.4%, above the 0.3% rise expected and following a 0.3% increase in January. The year-over-year rate increased to 2.8% from 2.7% in the previous month.

In company news, Nippon Steel has offered to increase its proposed investment in upgrades to United States Steel ( X ) facilities to $7 billion from $2.7 billion, Semafor reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The companies are in talks with White House officials on ways to preserve their proposed $14 billion merger, according to the report. US Steel shares were up 0.1% around noon.

Nvidia ( NVDA )-backed (NVDA) CoreWeave said late Thursday it priced an initial public offering of 37.5 million class A shares at $40 each. The offering consists of 36.59 million shares sold by CoreWeave and 910,000 shares by existing stockholders. The shares are expected to start trading Friday under the ticker symbol CRWV. The IPO is expected to close Monday, the company said. Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares were down 1.3%.

Lululemon Athletica ( LULU ) reported fiscal Q4 earnings late Thursday of $6.14 per diluted share, up from $5.29 a year earlier and above the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by FactSet calling for $5.85. Fiscal Q4 revenue was $3.61 billion, up from $3.21 billion in the year-ago period and above the FactSet consensus of $3.58 billion. The company expects fiscal Q1 EPS of $2.53 to $2.58 and net revenue of $2.34 billion to $2.36 billion. Analysts expect $2.72 EPS and $2.39 billion in revenue. For fiscal 2025, Lululemon expects EPS of $14.95 to $15.15 and revenue of $11.15 billion to $11.30 billion. Analysts expect EPS of $15.37 and revenue of $11.30 billion. Lululemon shares were down past 14%.

Oracle's (ORCL) contract with the US Department of Defense, supported by Leidos ( LDOS ) , will be terminated as part of the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Oracle shares were down 3.2%.

Price: 43.06, Change: +0.08, Percent Change: +0.17

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