U.S. Stocks Surging As Inflation Data Eases Interest Rate Concerns

Stocks have moved sharply higher during trading on Tuesday, with the major averages all showing strong moves to the upside after ending the previous session narrowly mixed. With the surge, the major averages have reached their best intraday levels in two months.

In recent trading, the major averages have once again reached new highs for the session. The Dow is up 517.05 points or 1.5 percent at 34,854.92, the Nasdaq is up 316.52 points or 2.3 percent at 14,084.27 and the S&P 500 is up 86.96 points or 2.0 percent at 4,498.51.

The rally on Wall Street comes following the release of the Labor Department’s highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation in the month of October.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index was unchanged in October after climbing by 0.4 percent in September. Economists had expected consumer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent.

Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices edged up by 0.2 percent in October after rising by 0.3 percent in September. Core prices were expected to rise by another 0.3 percent.

The report also said the annual rate of consumer price growth slowed to 3.2 percent in October from 3.7 percent in September. Economists had expected the pace of growth to decelerate to 3.3 percent.

Core consumer prices were up by 4.0 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the smallest year-over-year increase since September 2021.

The annual rate of core consumer price growth was expected to come in unchanged from 4.1 percent in the previous month.

Michael Pearce, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, said the slowdown in core price growth should “give Fed officials more confidence that inflation is on a firm downward trajectory, staying its hand for rate hikes.”

Treasury yields have moved sharply lower following the release of the report, adding to the buying interest on Wall Street.

Sector News

Interest rate-sensitive housing and commercial real estate stocks have moved sharply higher on the day, driving the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index up by 6.2 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.

Substantial strength is also visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 4.8 percent spike by the KBW Bank Index. The index has reached its best intraday level in almost two months.

Airline stocks have also shown a significant move to the upside, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 4.5 percent.

Gold, networking and semiconductor stocks are also seeing considerable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.3 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi jumped by 1.2 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are up by 1.6 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved sharply higher in reaction to the consumer price inflation data. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 17.7 basis points at 4.455 percent.

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