US stocks surged on Wednesday after the latest consumer price index report showed core inflation unexpectedly slowed in December and major U.S. banks kicked off quarterly earnings reporting season with blowout results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 640 points higher, or 1.5%. The S&P 500 climbed 1.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.5%.
December's consumer price index showed that core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 3.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. This was a notch down from the previous month and better than the 3.3% estimated by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. Meanwhile, the 0.4% month-over-month uptick in headline inflation came in slightly above the 0.3% forecast by economists. On a 12-month basis, headline inflation increased 2.9% which was in line with forecasts.
Big tech stocks jumped in morning trading. Tesla, Meta, and Amazon rose about 3%; Alphabet rose about 2%; Nvidia and Netflix rose 1%; Microsoft rose 0.8%; Apple rose 0.7%.