by Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Tuesday, aiming for a peak in 2023, after inflation data failed to shake up expectations about the potential timing of a rate cut. US Federal Reserve (Fed), which began its two-day monetary policy meeting.
The Dow Jones index gained 0.48%, or 173.01 points, to 36,577.94 points.
The broader S&P-500 gained 21.26 points, or 0.46%, to 4,643.70 points.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced 100.91 points (0.70%) to 14,533.40 points.
With their rise today, the main Wall Street indices have climbed to records since the first quarter of 2022.
According to the report released today by the US Department of Labor, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded growth of 3.1% at an annual rate in November, in line with analysts’ expectations, in a context of falling fuel prices but rising rents in the United States.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased by 0.1%, while analysts expected them to remain stable.
If the markets recently started betting on a Fed rate cut next March, traders have revised their forecasts and are now targeting a first cut in May.
The American central bank last month took a new pause in the cycle of monetary tightening that it began in March 2022 in order to control inflation.
“The market assumes that inflation will continue to fall, that (company) results over the coming year will show decent growth and that the Fed will cut rates,” commented Scott Wren, strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in St. Louis.
The market is expecting the economy to make a soft landing, which will allow the Fed to ease its monetary policy, he added.
Investors are now awaiting additional information on inflation, with the report on producer prices in the United States, which will be published before the Fed’s press release at the end of its meeting.
Among the major S&P-500 sectors, energy declined 1.35% as oil prices fell, marking the biggest decline of the session. Technologies, on the other hand, reached an unprecedented peak after recording a fourth consecutive increase.
On the value side, note the decline of 0.58% in Alphabet the day after Google’s defeat in the antitrust trial brought against it by Epic Games, developer of the video game “Fortnite”.
Oracle plunged 12.44% after reporting lower-than-expected quarterly forecasts, citing slowing demand for its cloud computing services.
( Jean Terzian)
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