- CPI report due Thursday before the bell
- Bed, Bath & Beyond extends recent gains
- Indexes: Dow up 0.8%, S&P 500 up 1.3%, Nasdaq up 1.8%
U.S. stocks ended up sharply on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gaining more than 1% each as investors were optimistic ahead of an inflation report that could give the Federal Reserve room to dial back on its aggressive interest rate hikes.
Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Shubham Batra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Grant McCool
The much-anticipated report due on Thursday is projected by economists polled by Reuters to show U.S. consumer prices grew 6.5% year-on-year in December, moderating from a 7.1% rise in November.
Among sectors, real estate (.SPLRCR) and consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) were the day’s strongest performers, while Microsoft (MSFT.O), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and other mega-cap growth names gave the S&P 500 its biggest boost.
The benchmark index is up so far for 2023 after falling sharply last year. Hopes that the Fed could soon ease back on its aggressive tightening after raising the federal funds rate seven times in 2022 have boosted the market in recent sessions, even as comments by some Fed officials have supported the view that the central bank needs to remain vigilant about raising rates to fight inflation.
“Investors are anticipating that we’re closer to a pause than at any other point last year,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said that would be welcomed by the market.
Also, “any time you have a down year, it’s not surprising many times to have a reversal at the start of the new year,” he said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 268.91 points, or 0.8%, to 33,973.01, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 50.36 points, or 1.28%, to 3,969.61 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 189.04 points, or 1.76%, to 10,931.67.
Source: Reuters
Recent Comments