NEW YORK — Wall Street's winning streak barreled into a fourth day Thursday following the latest signal that inflation is easing.
The S&P 500 rose 37.88, or 0.8%, to 4,510.04 and its highest close since April 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.71, or 0.1%, to 34,395.14, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 219.61, or 1.6%, to 14,138.57 as Big Tech stocks led the way.
The S&P 500 is on track for its seventh winning week in the last nine after more data raised hopes that inflation is cooling enough to get the Federal Reserve to soon end its interest rate hikes that are intended to bring down inflation. Inflation at the wholesale level slowed more than expected in June, and prices paid by producers were just 0.1% higher during the month than a year earlier. That's down from 11.2% inflation last summer.
Traders are still convinced the Fed will raise the federal funds rate at its next meeting in two weeks but are building bets for that to be the final rate increase of this cycle.
A report Wednesday showed that prices consumers paid in June were 3% higher than a year earlier, down from inflation of more than 9% last summer.
Treasury yields fell further in the bond market as traders pared bets for Fed rate hikes later this year.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.76% from 3.86% late Wednesday and from 3.98% late Tuesday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for Fed action, fell to 4.63% from 4.75% late Wednesday and from 4.89% late Tuesday.
The drop for yields accelerated after James Bullard said in the afternoon that he's stepping down as president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank to join Purdue University's business school as its dean next month. He was one of the loudest Fed voices pushing for higher rates to control inflation.
Amazon, Alphabet and Nvidia among the strongest forces pushing up the S&P 500. Amazon gained 2.7% after it said the first day of its annual Prime Day event Tuesday was the biggest sales day in its history.
Alphabet rose 4.7% after Google said it's rolling out Bard, its chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, to more countries and launching new features for it.
Nvidia, at the center of a Wall Street frenzy about AI, rose 4.7%.
PepsiCo added 2.4% after it beat analysts' profit expectations.
The earnings reporting season is just getting underway. JPMorgan Chase will lead banks Friday in telling investors how much they made this spring.
Exxon Mobil fell 1.8% after saying it would buy Denbury, which owns carbon dioxide pipelines, for $4.9 billion in stock. Denbury fell 1.3%.
These 5 charts show the ups and downs of the US stock market over 10 years
These 5 charts show the ups and downs of the US stock market over 10 years
Traders Jonathan Mueller, left, and Michael Capolino work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, July 13, 2023. Wall Street is adding to its winning week Thursday following the latest signal that inflation is continuing to ease its chokehold on the economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)