NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Friday near the conclusion of a strong week for equities as investors grappled with data showing US consumer inflation near a 40-year high.
The Labor Department's consumer price index jumped 6.8 percent compared to November of last year, its biggest gain since June 1982 as prices for gasoline, used cars, food rent and others continued to climb.
Still, stocks pushed higher, extending a mostly positive trend this week on receding fears of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4 percent at 35,913.33.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.5 percent to 4,693.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.4 percent to 15,579.64.
Analysts noted that the inflation report showed the month-to-month increase decelerated slightly from October.
But Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare described the release as "a terrible report" in a note that questioned whether the gains in stocks made sense.
Adam Sarhan, founder of 50 Park Investments, said the market has concluded that the Federal Reserve's recent pivot on inflation means it "is going to take proactive steps to begin to combat inflation," he said.
"As long as the Fed is ahead of this and not behind it, stocks can go much, much higher."
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