NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose Monday following losses last week as hot inflation data worsened worries over the central bank’s monetary policy direction.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.67 percent to 33,037.06, shortly after trading started.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.72 percent to 3,998.74, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.9 percent to 11,497.94.

Wall St ends sharply down, posts biggest weekly drop of 2023

Interest in buying-the-dip seems to have lifted major indices, said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com in a note.

“At Friday’s low, the S&P 500 was down 6.0 percent since the release of the January employment report in early February,” he said, noting that the index also logged its biggest weekly loss this year.

But durable goods data released Monday before trading started showed that orders for big-ticket manufactured items remained stronger than the headline figure suggested, he said.

While the Federal Reserve has moderated its campaign of interest rate increases in recent months, government figures showed that inflation remains stubborn.

Data released last week indicated that the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, rose in January by 5.4 percent.

The report is the latest indicator to suggest the central bank still faces significant challenges in addressing pricing pressure.

This has fueled fears that the Fed could raise rates more than expected and hold them at a higher rate for an extended period, weighing on the economy.

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