US STOCKS-Wall St jumps as data supports view Fed may be done hiking rates

Applied Energetics

14/11/2023 21:00

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      U.S. headline, core CPI growth falls short of estimates
    

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      Home Depot rises after beating profit estimates
    

  
 (Updates to close)
    By Caroline Valetkevitch
       NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed sharply
higher on Tuesday, led by the Nasdaq, as softer-than-expected
inflation data supported the view that the Federal Reserve may
be done raising interest rates.
    The rate-sensitive S&P 500 real estate  .SPLRCR  and
utilities  .SPLRCU  sectors had their biggest daily percentage
gains since November 2022, and the small-cap Russell 2000 index
 .RUT  outperformed the broader market.
    Data showed U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in October
as Americans paid less for gasoline, and the annual rise in
underlying inflation was the smallest in two years. In the 12
months through October, the CPI climbed 3.2% - below economists'
estimates - after rising 3.7% in September.
    "The clear catalyst was the softer-than-expected inflation
report," said Craig Fehr, head of investment strategy at Edward
Jones.
        "Getting some softer inflation readings provided markets
some additional comfort that the Fed isn't going to have to put
in place a significant amount of additional restrictive policy
to continue to bring consumer prices lower."
  
    Since March 2022, the Fed has hiked its policy rate 525
basis points to combat high inflation.
    According to preliminary data, the S&P 500
 .SPX  gained 84.48 points, or 1.91%, to end at 4,496.03 points,
while the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  gained 325.03 points, or
2.36%, to 14,094.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
 .DJI  rose 488.84 points, or 1.42%, to 34,826.71.
    Investors also focused on negotiations by U.S. lawmakers
over a funding bill as they face an end-of-week deadline to fund
the federal government.
    Among individual stocks, Snap Inc shares  SNAP.N  jumped
following news that Amazon.com  AMZN.O  will allow Snapchat
users in the United States to buy some products listed on the
ecommerce company directly from the social media app.
    Home Depot  HD.N  gained after the U.S. home improvement
chain beat quarterly profit estimates.

 (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by
Sruthi Shankar and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; additional
reporting by Ankika Biswas; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and
Richard Chang)
 ((caroline.valetkevitch@thomsonreuters.com))