S&P 500 hits fresh record on new inflation data
The S&P 500 soared to a new record on Wednesday after wholesale prices unexpectedly fell, offering a boost to investors hoping the Federal Reserve will cut rates next week to support the economy.
Oracle shares led the rally, climbing 40% following an impressive forecast fueled by artificial intelligence optimism, News.Az reports, citing CNBC.
The broad market index climbed 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% — also reaching new heights. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 67 points, or 0.1%.
Market sentiment was boosted following the latest producer price index reading, which showed that wholesale prices fell 0.1% in August. Economists polled by Dow Jones had estimated a 0.3% gain. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, likewise declined 0.1%, while the Dow Jones forecast called for 0.3%.
The report serves as a positive sign regarding the state of inflation in the U.S. economy heading into Thursday’s more closely watched consumer price index reading.
Economists expect the CPI report to show monthly increases of 0.3%, according to Dow Jones. This includes the headline all-items index as well as the core reading that excludes volatile food and energy prices. If this materializes, the annual headline CPI rate would be pushed up to 2.9%, though the core reading is expected to stay unchanged at 3.1%.
If the numbers come around these estimates, the Federal Reserve will have more ammunition to deliver another rate cut at its September meeting.
Traders currently see a certainty that the Fed will cut by at least a quarter point, per the CME Fedwatch tool based on fed futures trading. They also increased their bets following the PPI data that the central bank could make an even deeper cut to rates, by 50 basis points, or a half percentage point.
“This number now, if the Fed is truly data dependent, the question should be, ‘Why not 50?’” said Mohamed El-Erian of Allianz on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The employment side is much weaker than they expected...and now the latest inflation print is much better.”
Oracle soared after the tech old guard reported that multicloud database revenue from Amazon, Google and Microsoft grew at a whopping rate of 1,529% in its last quarter, fueled by demand for AI servers.
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