NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Wednesday, extending the prior session's rally following a report that showed record inflation but that was broadly within the expected range.
US consumer prices in 2021 jumped by seven percent, the fastest pace in four decades. However, the month-on-month increase slowed to 0.5 percent from November, indicating the price surge may be nearing a peak.
The data "is largely expected," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital, who noted that increasingly higher inflation readings are becoming unlikely.
"We believe that actually, inflation is peaking, probably around now," Ablin said. "And it will likely head lower as we move into the rest of the year."
About 20 minutes into the trading session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4 percent at 36,403.55.
US stocks fall again amid doubts over Fed policy
The broad-based S&P 500 also climbed 0.4 percent to 4,733.27, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.5 percent to 15,229.30.
The consumer price reading came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pledged on Tuesday to adopt policies to counter inflation, including with interest rate increases this year.
After a poor first week of trading in 2022, stocks rose on Tuesday ahead of the kickoff of earnings season later this week.
Among individual companies, Biogen fell 9.2 percent after the US health officials said they would cover the company's Alzheimer's disease drug but only for a narrow subset of patients.
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