Wall Street got back to climbing on Wednesday after the latest update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve.
- The S&P 500 rose 49.28 points, or 0.8%, to 6,084.19 to break a two-day losing streak. It finished just short of its all-time high.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 99.27 points, or 0.2%, to 44,148.56.
- The Nasdaq composite rose 347.65 points, or 1.8%, to a record high of 20,034.89, topping the 20,000 level for the first time.
Stocks got a boost as expectations built that the Fed will deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week. Traders are betting on a 95% probability of that, according to data from CME Group, up from 89% a day before. If they're correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high.
Wednesday's report said US consumers paid prices in November that were 2.7% higher than a year earlier. That's a slight acceleration from October's inflation rate of 2.6%, but it was exactly what economists were expecting. On Wall Street, Stitch Fix jumped 44.4% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave financial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue. Albertsons fell 1.5% after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn't do enough for their proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. Albertsons said it's seeking billions of dollars in damages from Kroger, whose stock rose 1%.
Mondelez, the company behind Oreo and other food brands, climbed 2.2% after announcing a plan to send cash to shareholders by buying back up to $9 billion of its own stock, the AP reports. On the losing end of Wall Street, Macy's fell 1% after cutting some of its financial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much profit it expects to make off each $1 of revenue. Dave & Buster's Entertainment sank 20.1% after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than expected. It also said CEO Chris Morris has resigned, and the board has been working with an executive-search firm for the last few months to find its next permanent leader.
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