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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
The S&P 500 rose slightly on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to a major U.S. inflation report.
The broad market index traded 0.3% higher, reaching a fresh record high and on track for its seventh straight day of gains. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%, also hitting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered around the flatline.
The June consumer price index report is slated for release Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a 0.1% month-over-month advance and a 3.1% year-on-year gain. Core CPI, which excludes energy and food prices, is forecast to have expanded by 0.2% month over month and 3.4% year on year. The producer price index is set for release Friday.
“So far this week, stock traders have been willing to ignore or dismiss the downside risks related to evidence of a recent slowdown in economic activity indicators in the US and abroad,” Macquarie global FX & rates strategist Thierry Wizman wrote on Wednesday. “Instead, stock indexes have generally risen on the fresh liquidity that’s been driven by the premise that the Fed (and other central banks) will either start or continue to reduce their policy interest rates this year.”
Wall Street is coming off fresh record closing highs for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned on Tuesday that keeping rates elevated for too long could stunt economic growth.
“Reducing policy restraint too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment,” said Powell, speaking to the Senate Banking Committee as part of his semiannual address to Congress on Tuesday. He continues his testimony Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee. “More good data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%,” Powell added.
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