US STOCKS-Nasdaq leads Wall St to higher close as CPI report lifts sentiment

VMware

12/07/2023 21:27

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        * 
      Nvidia in talks to become anchor investor in Arm
IPO-sources
    

        * 
      VMware rises after Broadcom wins conditional EU antitrust
OK
    

        * 
      U.S. consumer prices rise modestly in June
    

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      Indexes: Dow up 0.3%, S&P 500 up 0.7%, Nasdaq up 1.2% 
    

  
 (Updates close with volume, share moves)
    By Caroline Valetkevitch
       NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended solidly
higher on Wednesday, led by a gain of more than 1% in the Nasdaq
after a report showed inflation subsided further with consumer
prices registering their smallest annual increase in more than
two years.
    The data underscored expectations the Federal Reserve may
let interest rates stand after one more 25 basis point hike
expected at its July policy meeting. 
    Shares of big tech-related companies, which tend to be
sensitive to higher interest rates, gave the S&P 500 its biggest
boost. The technology sector  .SPLRCT  was up 1.3%
    In the 12 months through June, the CPI advanced 3.0%. That
was the smallest year-on-year increase since March 2021 and
followed a 4.0% rise in May.
    Indexes eased off their early highs by late afternoon, but
"bulls remain firmly in charge," said Michael James, managing
director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
        "Clearly the CPI data we got was what the bulls wanted
to see, and those that have been sitting on the sidelines hoping
for a pullback continue to get frustrated."
  
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose 86.01 points,
or 0.25%, to 34,347.43, the S&P 500  .SPX  gained 32.9 points,
or 0.74%, to 4,472.16 and the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  added
158.26 points, or 1.15%, to 13,918.96.
    Investors have been weighing how much longer the Fed will
need to raise rates to curb inflation.      


    The Cboe Volatility Index  .VIX , Wall Street's fear gauge,
eased.
    The Labor Department report also showed the smallest monthly
gain in underlying consumer prices since August 2021.
        "The market is sensing the Fed is getting closer and
closer to that final one and done," said Quincy Krosby, chief
global strategist at LPL Financial in North Carolina. 
  
    The S&P 500 banks index  .SPXBK  was up 0.6%. Reports from
JPMorgan Chase  JPM.N  and other major U.S. banks due Friday
unofficially begin the second-quarter earnings season.
    U.S. chipmaker Broadcom  AVGO.O  secured EU antitrust
approval for its $61 billion proposed acquisition of cloud
computing firm VMware  VMW.N  after offering remedies to help
rival Marvell Technology  MRVL.O . Shares of VMware were up
2.8%, while Broadcom was up 0.9% and Marvel was up 1.2%.
    Nvidia  NVDA.O  shares rose 3.5% after people familiar with
the matter said SoftBank Group Corp's  9984.T  chip designer Arm
Ltd is in talks to bring in Nvidia as an anchor investor as it
presses ahead with plans for a New York listing that could
happen in September.
    Also, Nvidia said it will invest $50 million to speed up
training of Recursion's  RXRX.O  artificial intelligence models
for drug discovery. Recursion shares were up 78%.
    Investors also digested news that U.S. Treasury Secretary
Janet Yellen's trip to China has raised hopes in Beijing that
tariffs on Chinese imports may be eased.
        Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.20 billion shares,
compared with the 11.15 billion average for the full session
over the last 20 trading days.
  
        Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE
by a 3.23-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.93-to-1 ratio favored
advancers.
  
        The S&P 500 posted 66 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 129 new highs and 42 new lows.    
 
  

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Inflation    https://tmsnrt.rs/44KV0El
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 (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by
Johann M Cherian and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru;
Additional Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan; Editing by Shinjini
Ganguli, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
 ((caroline.valetkevitch@thomsonreuters.com))