Wall Street stocks advanced Wednesday following a surprisingly benign US inflation report that raised hopes the Federal Reserve will soon end its monetary tightening campaign. The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, rose 3.0 percent from a year ago last month, the smallest increase since March 2021 and down from May’s reading as well.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.3 percent to 34,347.43. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent to 4,472.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.2 percent to 13,918.96. “The outlook for inflation is soft enough that the Fed’s expected rate hike in July will be the last one for the cycle,” said LBBW’s Karl Haeling, who observed a rush of investors into stocks. “People are losing money if they sit on the sidelines,” he said.
Futures markets still expect a Fed rate hike in July, but not in September. Elsewhere, the Fed’s latest “beige book” pointed to improved activity since late May, with robust tourism and travel fueling growth.
Economic activity either grew or held steady in most of its districts across the country, with the exception of Philadelphia and San Francisco, where activity fell, according to the report. Among individual companies, Nvidia jumped 3.5 percent following reports that it is in talks to invest in Arm, a Softbank-backed semiconductor company.
Meta Platforms gained 3.7 percent on bullish sentiment regarding its Threads social media platform’s ability to attract advertisers. Meta launched the Instagram program last week. Domino’s Pizza surged 11.1 percent after announcing a global agreement with Uber, to have meals delivered through the Uber Eats and Postmates apps. Uber shares rose 0.4 percent.
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