NEW YORK, March 14 — Wall Street stocks advanced to start today as markets shrugged off hotter than anticipated wholesale prices data and a retail sales rebound.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 per cent to 39,100.30, while the broad-based S&P 500 Index gained 0.1 per cent to 5,172.29.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.2 per cent, too, at 16,213.65.
This came after the producer price index jumped 0.6 per cent in February, above market expectations.
With the cost of goods behind the increase, this could add to concerns that Federal Reserve officials would keep interest rates higher for longer as they seek to tamp down inflation sustainably.
Retail sales, however came in slightly below expectations, also rising 0.6 per cent on-month in February.
“The key takeaway from the report is the sales rebound itself, which will quiet some of the concerns about the January downturn, and help the market maintain its soft landing outlook,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
A soft landing refers to a situation where inflation comes down without triggering a recession.
Among individual companies, US Steel shares tumbled 4.0 per cent, after President Joe Biden said he opposed the proposed sale of the company to Japan’s Nippon Steel.
Biden’s comments also came less than a month before a US visit by Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. — AFP
