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- US stocks climbed on Thursday as traders digested inflation data for July.
- The Consumer Price Index showed inflation rose 3.2% last month, slower than economists expected.
US stocks jumped on Thursday as July Consumer Price Index data showed inflation rose last month at a slower rate than economists were predicting.
Inflation rose 3.2% on an annualized basis in July. That's higher than 3.0% in June but lower than the expected rate of 3.3%. Month-to-month, inflation rose 0.2% from June to July, which was in line with expectations.
Although the annualized rate of inflation came in hotter than June's figures, market watchers still think that prices are cooling enough to bolster the argument that the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates. Fed fund futures are pricing in 90% odds that the central bank holds its target rate steady at 5.25%-5.50% at next month's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, and that rate cuts could be coming as early as the first quarter of next year.
"The case is building for the Fed to keep policy rates unchanged in September. Both headline and core inflation are waning and the internals of the CPI print suggest that further deceleration pressures should build over the coming months," Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said.
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 4,499.51, up 0.71%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,409.52, up 0.82% (292 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 13,847, up 0.81%
Here's what else is going on today:
- China is heading for another real estate crisis — but on a scale it's never seen before.
- Bearish hedge fund boss Boaz Weinstein is feeling the pain from this year's surprise stock rally.
- Tesla sales in China have slipped, but the country's sagging economy may not be to blame.
- The rally in stocks is under pressure and corporate profits could be about to sink, JPMorgan says.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 0.88% to $83.66 a barrel. Brent, the international benchmark, fell 0.63% to $87.14 a barrel.
- Gold edged up 0.5% to $1,959.10 per ounce.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond slipped about one basis point to 3.99%.
- Bitcoin fell 0.05% to $29,550.