NEW YORK: The S&P 500 and the Dow rose modestly on Tuesday ahead of inflation data, as investors were hopeful that a slowdown in price increases could support a sooner-than-expected end to the Federal Reserve’s policy of rapid monetary tightening.
The latest data, due on Wednesday, is expected to show consumer prices cooled on an annual basis in June, which could influence bets on another rate hike after the July meeting.
Investors have already raised their expectations of a 25 basis-point rate hike later this month after last week’s jobs report pointed to a resilient US economy.
In the previous session, the main US stock indexes closed a choppy session slightly higher after Fed officials signaled the central bank was nearing the end of its monetary tightening cycle. “It’s optimism around that the next CPI report is going to come in better than expected ... which may push the Fed to the sideline sooner than everyone expects,” said Phil Blancato, chief executive officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.
New York Fed President John Williams in an interview with the Financial Times said the central bank is not done raising rates. He added that the economy is yet to feel the full impact of past rate hikes.
Amazon.com outpaced megacap peers, up 0.8%, going into the “Prime Day” 48-hour shopping event, which falls on July 11-12. At 11:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 150.60 points, or 0.44%, at 34,095.00, the S&P 500 was up 9.33 points, or 0.21%, at 4,418.86, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.20 points, or 0.02%, at 13,683.19. Eight of the top 11 S&P 500 sectors advanced, with energy leading gains by 1.9%.
Activision Blizzard jumped 10.5% after a US judge ruled that Microsoft may go forward with its planned $69 billion acquisition of the videogame maker. Microsoft edged 0.2% down.
Offering support to the Dow, Salesforce advanced 3.0% after the cloud services firm said it would increase prices of some of its cloud and marketing tools, a first in seven years. 3M rose 3.8% after Bank of America Global Research lifted its rating on the conglomerate to “neutral”.
The banking index added 1.3%, with JPMorgan Chase climbing 1.5% after Jefferies upgraded the stock to “buy” ahead of quarterly results later this week. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.76-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.54-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 40 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 71 new highs and 25 new lows.
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