Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stocks rallied Tuesday, building on their strong November gains, as Wall Street cheered new U.S. inflation data that raised hopes of the Federal Reserve wrapping up its rate-hiking campaign.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 489.83 points, or 1.43%, to end at 34,827.70. The S&P 500 rallied 1.91%, briefly trading above the key 4,500 level, to settle at 4,495.70. It was the best day since April for the broad-market index. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.37% to close at 14,094.38.
Tuesday’s gains added to an already stellar performance this month for stocks. The S&P 500 and Dow are up 7.2% and 5.4%, respectively, in November. The Nasdaq is up 9.7%, on pace for its biggest monthly gain since January.
CPI was flat last month, while economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 0.1% month over month. So-called core CPI, which strips out food and energy prices, was also lower than expected and rose at the slowest rate in two years. This instilled optimism into the market that the Federal Reserve could finally end its rate-hiking campaign for good.
“There’s optimism that inflation is cooling to a level where the Federal Reserve can take its foot off the brake,” said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.
Following the report, fed-funds futures pricing data suggested rates are likely to remain steady at the next Fed policy meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
The 10-year Treasury yield, which shocked investors by leaping over 5% in October, tumbled below 4.5% following the soft inflation report.
Leading the equity rally Tuesday was the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK), which tracks the tech stocks in the S&P 500. The fund closed at a record high, as investors returned to the sector that has been one of the hardest hit by rate hikes. Shares of Tesla gained more than 6%.
Bank stocks such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo jumped on the hope that the economy could skirt a recession.
Shares of Home Depot, which were up 5% on better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, led the gains for the Dow. Enphase Energy, Boston Properties and SolarEdge Technologies — each up more than 10% — led the S&P higher.