On Wednesday, Wall Street added a bit more to its big rally from a day before and to its gains so far for November.
- The S&P 500 rose 7.18 points, or 0.2%, to 4,502.88.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 163.51 points, or 0.5%, to 34,991.21.
- The Nasdaq composite rose 9.45 points, or 0.1%, to 14,103.84.
The market was moving more tentatively following its best day since April. Treasury yields rose after one report said inflation was easing at the wholesale level but another indicated sales at retailers were stronger than expected.
Target helped lead the market with a 17.8% jump after it reported much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But another big retailer, TJX, fell 3.3% after the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls gave a profit forecast for the upcoming holiday shopping season that fell short of analysts' estimates, the AP reports.
Halfway through November, the S&P 50 has already jumped 7.5%, which would make this its best month in a year if it does nothing else for two weeks. Another report on inflation Wednesday came in lower than expected. Prices at the wholesale level were 1.3% higher in October than a year earlier, and they surprisingly fell from September's levels. That breathed more life into hopes that inflation is indeed cooling enough for the Fed to halt its barrage of rate hikes.
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But a separate report on sales at US retailers released Wednesday morning "complicates the picture," according to Chris Larkin, managing director at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. Sales fell 0.1% in October from September, holding up better than the 0.3% drop forecast by economists. Stronger-than-expected sales at US retailers is an indicator of a healthier economy, which is important given worries still exist about a possible recession. But they could also feed into upward pressure on inflation, which could get the Fed nervous about interest rates. (More stock market stories.)
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