Wall Street ends sharply higher as investors eye inflation data
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[February 14, 2023] By
Noel Randewich
(Reuters) - Wall Street closed sharply higher on Monday as investors
awaited inflation data likely to hint at the path of the Federal
Reserve's future interest rate hikes, while Meta Platforms gained after
a report that the Facebook parent was planning fresh layoffs.
Meta jumped about 3% after the Financial Times reported on Sunday that
the company was preparing to announce a new round of job cuts, adding to
layoffs last November.
Microsoft rose more than 3%, Nvidia gained 2.5%, and Apple and Amazon
each rose over 1%. Along with Meta, those tech-related heavyweights
contributed more than any other stocks to the S&P 500's gains during a
trading session that saw light volume.
Helping lift Microsoft, Stifel raised its price target on the software
company and said it is clearly looking to upend Alphabet's Google search
dominance through its integration with ChatGPT.
Investors are laser-focused on January inflation data due on Tuesday to
reassess their bets on the central bank's monetary policy path.
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Wall Street's main indexes lost ground last week after Federal Reserve
Chair Jerome Powell warned that interest rates may need to move higher
than expected in the central bank's battle against inflation.
"Today is just a natural reaction in the opposite direction after we've
seen very heavy selling pressure," said Keith Buchanan, portfolio
manager at GLOBALT Investments in Atlanta.
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by information
technology, up 1.77%, followed by a 1.46% gain in consumer
discretionary. The energy index dipped 0.6%.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.15% to end the session at 4,137.32 points.
The Nasdaq gained 1.48% to 11,891.79 points, while the Dow Jones
Industrial Average rose 1.11% to 34,246.13 points.
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Traders work on the trading floor at the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 27,
2023. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
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However, volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 9.5
billion shares traded, compared to an average of 11.9 billion shares
over the previous 20 sessions.
So far in this year, the S&P 500 has gained about 8%, and the index
remains down about 14% from its record high close in January 2022.
Fidelity National Information Services Inc plunged 12.5% following
the banking and payments processing conglomerate's decision to spin
off its merchant payments business.
Coca-Cola rose 1.6% ahead of its quarterly report due out early on
Tuesday.
As U.S. quarterly earnings reports wind down, 69% of the S&P 500
firms that have reported results so far have exceeded profit
expectations, according to Refinitiv data. Analysts expect
December-quarter earnings to have fallen nearly 3% from a year
earlier.
Across the U.S. stock market, advancing stocks outnumbered falling
ones by a 2.5-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted four new highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq
recorded 80 new highs and 59 new lows.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel,
Sriraj Kalluvila, Shinjini Ganguli and Deepa Babington)
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