After recovering from an early sell-off but still ending the previous session mostly lower, stocks have moved to the upside during trading on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is leading the charge after ending Wednesday’s trading slightly higher.
Currently, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 are just off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq is up 207.80 points or 1.1 percent at 19,857.75, the S&P 500 is up 33.60 points or 0.6 percent at 6,085.57 and the Dow is up 77.21 points or 0.2 percent at 44,445.77.
The strength on Wall Street may partly reflect optimism about a possible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine following comments from President Donald Trump.
Trump said he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and called Ukraine’s NATO membership not “practical,” raising expectations for an end to the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, traders have seemingly shrugged off another hotter than expected inflation reading, as the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices rose by slightly more than expected in January.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand rose by 0.4 percent in January after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.5 percent in December.
Economists had expected producer prices to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.2 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the report said the annual rate of producer price growth in January was unchanged from an upwardly revised 3.5 percent in December.
The annual rate of producer price growth was expected to slow to 3.2 percent from the 3.3 percent originally reported for the previous month.
“As in the CPI report, a big increase in energy prices and eggs pushed up the PPI in January,” said Bill Adams, Chief Economist for Comerica Bank. “There was also a big upward contributions from hotel and motel rates.”
He added, “However, the PPI also saw flat or negative readings on most types of healthcare services, which points to a cooler core PCE inflation report for January than the month’s core CPI, which rose 0.4%.”
A separate report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by slightly more than expected in the week ended February 8th.
Sector News
Telecom stocks have shown a significant move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index up by 2.1 percent to a nearly two-month intraday high.
Considerable strength is also visible among computer hardware stocks, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index jumping by 2.1 percent to its best intraday level in almost seven months.
Semiconductor and brokerage stocks are also seeing some strength, while airline stocks have moved to the downside, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 1.3 percent.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.3 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index declined by 0.4 percent.
Meanwhile, European stocks have moved mostly higher on the day. The German DAX Index is up by 1.7 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.4 percent, although the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has bucked the uptrend and fallen by 0.6 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have shown a strong move back to the upside following yesterday’s slump. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 10.1 basis points at 4.533 percent.
Business News
U.S. Stocks Move Mostly Higher Despite Inflation Data Exceeding Estimates
2025-02-13 16:00:59
