Stock Market News: Dow Opens Up After CPI Inflation Report
The stock market wavered in Wednesday morning trading as Wall Street digested the latest uptick in inflation.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% after bouncing between positive and negative territory. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was a touch ahead, with a gain of 39 points, or 0.1%.
The CPI for October was in line with expectations, sending Treasury bond prices higher and their yields lower. Yields had risen to their highest levels since July in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win as the bond market worried about the potential for inflationary policies like tariffs to stymy rate-cuts in 2025.
“A quick glance at this report shows the details were not encouraging,” writes Rosenberg Research’s David Rosenberg. “Had it not been for the election-induced surge in yields ahead of the report, I doubt we would be seeing today’s relief rally. Far too many areas hitched to the economic cycle showed a little too much verve for my liking.”
Roughly 276 stocks in the S&P 500 were trading higher, while the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF was up 0.2%.
Real estate was the top sector in the wake of a pullback in the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which is a proxy for mortgage rates. Other rate-sensitive sectors like utilities and consumer discretionary were rising.
The market is hovering near its highest levels on record. It will likely take more encouraging inflation numbers—including tomorrow’s producer price index—to spark another rally higher.
“One can point beyond election and fiscal risks to the simple fact that the inflation progress has stalled out — at this point, a December pause will not surprise me if the November payroll report doesn’t show follow-through weakness from October’s dud,” Rosenberg writes.