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NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are rising Monday as Wall Street waits for a report to show whether inflation is continuing to cool or perhaps setting the market up for worse pain.
The S&P 500 was 1.1% higher ahead of Tuesday's report on inflation at the consumer level across the country. It's coming off its worst week in nearly two months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 323 points, or 1%, at 34,193, as of 12:54 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% higher.
High inflation and the Federal Reserve's response to it with higher interest rates have been at the center of Wall Street's sharp moves for more than a year. The Fed has aggressively hiked rates to their highest level since the dawn of the Great Recession to drive down the worst inflation in generations. High rates can stamp out inflation, but they do so at the risk of sending the economy into a sharp recession and dragging on investment prices.
Economists expect Tuesday's report to show inflation slowed to 6.2% in January. That would be down from 6.5% a month before and from a peak of more than 9% in the summer. Perhaps more important than the overall number is what the data show about prices for services outside of housing, such as haircuts or airfares. Inflation has remained stubbornly high there, when it's started to come down in other areas.
A worse-than-expected reading would raise worries that the Federal Reserve will stay firmer on rates than expected, which could mean more pain for Wall Street. Cooler-than-expected figures, meanwhile, could fan anew hopes that were rising earlier this year for the Fed to take it easier on rates.
Treasury yields jumped last week after investors pulled their forecasts for rates closer to the Fed's, which has been saying that it plans to keep rates higher for longer to ensure the job is done on inflation.
Yields were relatively steady Monday ahead of the inflation report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans, dipped to 3.72% from 3.75% late Friday. The two-year yield, which tends to move more on expectations for the Fed, was at 4.54% and close to its highest since November.