Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Jerome Powell speaks at the Brookings Institution, November 30, 2022 in Washington, DC. Powell discussed the economic outlook, inflation and the labor market.
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- US stocks rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closing at highs for 2023.
- Thursday’s producer price index further established the disinflation narrative after Wednesday’s cooler CPI.
- Analysts and commentators are eyeing a soft landing of the economy as increasingly likely.
More signs of slowing price growth helped US stocks climb on Thursday, sending the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 to their highest levels of the year.
The disinflation narrative deepened as the Producer Price Index rose 0.1% year-over-year in June, the slowest rate of growth in nearly three years. The reading was better than expected, and added to Wednesday’s encouraging Consumer Price Index report that showed inflation cooling to 3% last month.
The reports are fueling hopes that the Federal Reserve could soon back away from its campaign of aggressively tightening monetary policy, though most expect one more hike at the end of this month. Cooling inflation and a steady slowing of the labor market have built up confidence among some analysts that a soft landing can still be achieved.
Tech led stocks higher Thursday, with Nvidia jumping nearly 5% and Alphabet up more than 4%. Cryptocurrency XRP rallied 61% after a US judge determined it was not a security.
Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Thursday:
Here’s what else has happened today:
In commodities, bonds and crypto:
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