Stocks rise on Wall Street, building on gains from last week
By DAMIAN J. TROISE
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday as the market builds on a rally last week that broke a three-week losing streak.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.7% as of 12:12 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 160 points, or 0.5%, to 32,315 and the Nasdaq rose 0.7%.
Technology companies and retailers led the gains. Apple rose 3.1% and Amazon rose 1.5%.
Energy stocks gained ground as U.S. crude oil prices rose 2.3%. Chevron rose 2%.
Markets in Europe also rose, while markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were closed for holidays.
Bond yields mostly fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other loans, slipped to 3.30% from 3.32% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which tends to track expectations for actions by the Federal Reserve, fell to 3.55% from 3.56%.
Investors face a busy week of inflation updates as they continue to closely watch how consumers and businesses cope with the worst inflation in four decades. The main focus is on the Federal Reserve, which has been raising interest rates in an effort to tame inflation. Wall Street is concerned that the central bank could hit the brakes too hard on the economy and throw it into a recession.
The concerns have created a volatile market over the past few months. Investors are hoping that any sign of easing inflation might signal to the Fed that it can also ease up on rate hikes. It has already raised rates four times this year and markets expect it to deliver another jumbo-sized increase of three-quarters of a percentage point at its meeting next week.
Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have all reaffirmed the central bank’s determination in raising rates until inflation is under control.
The most important inflation report this week comes on Tuesday and the government is expected to report that price increases slowed in August compared with a year ago, largely because of a steady drop in the cost of gas. Prices for other items, particularly food, are likely to keep rising quickly.
Overall, economists forecast consumer prices rose 8.1% in August, compared with a year ago, down from 8.5% in July, according to data provider FactSet. While that would be a welcome sign that inflation is possibly cooling, it still may not be enough to give Wall Street hope that the Fed might consider easing up on rate hikes.
“This week is going to be very telling,” said James Demmert, founder and managing partner at Main Street Research.
He said the broader market is looking for inflation to not just peak, but to meaningfully start cooling. That would mean an even softer rise in consumer prices for August than expected and more in the 7% range or lower. The current consensus for Tuesday’s inflation report is likely “not going to be healthy for stocks,” he said.
On Wednesday, the government will release its report on wholesale prices, giving Wall Street a picture of how inflation impacted businesses in August.
Investors will get more details Thursday on how consumers are reacting to high prices when the government releases a report on retail sales for August.
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AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed.
