US stocks ended mostly higher on Wednesday, supported by evidence that the conflict involving Iran has so far been less inflationary than many investors had feared. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, while the Dow added about 250 points.
June’s headline and core producer price indices both came in below expectations, reinforcing yesterday’s softer CPI report and further reducing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its upcoming meeting. These benign inflation readings helped counterbalance concerns about higher energy prices amid an escalation in strikes between the US and Iran.
Treasury yields continued to climb, but solid corporate earnings supported broad gains in equities. Morgan Stanley advanced 1.6% after releasing upbeat results, extending the strong reporting trend set by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. BlackRock and other asset managers jumped more than 5% following their earnings, while Johnson & Johnson finished roughly unchanged after its report.
Big cloud and AI platforms also rallied sharply: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet each gained more than 3%, helped by strong results from semiconductor equipment maker ASML. In contrast, the Nasdaq 100 slipped 1%, weighed down by a steep sell-off in memory-chip producers.
