NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose for a fourth straight session on Thursday (July 13), lifting the S&P 500 to a fresh 15-month peak on the back of benign inflation data and good corporate earnings.
Wholesale prices, measured through the producer price index, ticked up by 0.1% last month, slightly less than expected.
The data comes on the heels of Wednesday's consumer price report that also lagged expectations, showing progress in the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign to counter inflation.
The Fed is still expected to increase rates later this month but when the consumer inflation report hit, “the second rate hike after July just got washed out of the market”, said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
Treasury bond yields – a proxy for Fed interest rates – retreated on Thursday.
Technology-related shares provided the most support to the S&P 500, and an index of tech-focused shares including megacaps gained 2.7% and registered a record high close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.71 points, or 0.14%, to 34,395.14, the S&P 500 gained 37.88 points, or 0.85%, to 4,510.04 and the Nasdaq Composite added 219.61 points, or 1.58%, to 14,138.57.
Earnings season picks up significantly on Friday with releases from JPMorgan Chase and two other giant US banks.
“We might have another quarter here where the positive sentiment will continue,“ said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc in Toledo, Ohio.
“As long as expectations and guidance are in line, that’s what a lot of institutional investors will be looking at.”
Briefing.com’s O'Hare said the market could be challenged to keep rising, even if the results outperform lacklustre expectations.
“Probably a lot of good news is priced in already, so you the run the risk of a sell-the-news reaction,“ he said.
Among individual companies, PepsiCo shares climbed 2.4% as it raised its full-year forecast and reported that profit jumped by more than 90% to US$2.7 billion.
Of the day's other gainers, shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc shot up 4.7%. It said it was rolling out its artificial-intelligence chatbot Bard in Europe and Brazil, easing worries about overseas regulatory issues.
Denbury fell 1.3% after it agreed to be acquired by ExxonMobil for US$4.9 billion, in a bid to boost the oil giant's low-carbon business. – AFP, Reuters