NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Wednesday, as a tame inflation report calmed investor concerns around tariff-driven price pressures while markets awaited more details on Sino-US trade talks.
Data showed consumer prices increased only marginally in May, but inflation is expected to accelerate in the coming months due to the Trump administration’s import tariffs.
Annually, headline inflation stood at 2.4%, lower than the 2.5% rise estimated by economists polled by Reuters.
“There’ll probably be some impact of tariffs on inflation, but it will play out over months and quarters... it won’t be a concentrated shock,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation.
Traders are pricing in 48 basis points of interest rate cuts by year-end, per data compiled by LSEG. They are penciling in a 55% chance of a 25 bps cut in September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq traded near record levels, with the S&P 500 about 1.4% below all-time highs touched in February, and the Nasdaq about 2% below its record peaks reached in December.
A day after officials from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework to put their tariff truce back on track, President Donald Trump said the US deal with China was done, with Beijing to supply magnets and rare earth minerals.
According to a White House official, the agreement with China allows the US to charge a 55% tariff on imported Chinese goods, including a 10% baseline “reciprocal” tariff, a 20% tariff for fentanyl trafficking and a 25% tariff reflecting pre-existing tariffs. China will charge a 10% tariff on US imports, the official said.
Investors are awaiting more details from the two-day meeting and hoping for a lasting resolution to the trade tensions that have kept global markets on edge for much of the year.
The US stock market has rallied in recent weeks, recovering from a slump in April sparked by Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
At 11:24 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 165.55 points, or 0.39%, to 43,032.42, the S&P 500 gained 16.18 points, or 0.27%, to 6,054.99 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 68.54 points, or 0.35%, to 19,783.53.