Stocks rise as inflation fears ease, tech shares lead the way: Live updates

Stocks rose Thursday as new inflation data appeared to ease some concern around inflationary pressures, while trades awaited updates on the global trade front.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 84 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8%.

A jump in big-name tech stocks fueled Thursday’s gains. Nvidia gained about 3% after Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it shipped its first solution using Nvidia’s Blackwell chip. AppLovin, the best-performing U.S. tech stock last year, soared by roughly 20% on earnings. Tesla rose more than 4%.

Stocks rose on the release of the producer price index — a measure of what producers get for their goods and services — which reflected a 0.4% increase for January. That came out higher than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 0.3%. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, was up 0.3% for the month and in-line with the forecast.

Despite the hotter number on the surface, the latest PPI report and Wednesday’s consumer price index data point to a softer PCE price index than traders feared. That measure, which will be released in February, is what the Federal Reserve closely tracks.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell after the inflation data and was recently down by about 9 basis points to 4.545%.

“The components that feed into PCE is, I think, where we’re getting the celebration today. That’s helping bring yields down a little bit as well,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial.

“We’re watching 4.5% as the line in the sand for this upturn that’s been in place since September. A break below that would be a welcome sign for equity markets,” he added.

Wall Street is coming off a choppy session after a data on Wednesday showed consumer prices sped up faster-than-expected, curbing expectations of the next rate cut out to September.

Investors continue to grapple with rising global trade tension. On Wednesday, the White House said President Donald Trump would impose reciprocal tariffs on imported goods before meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.