PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Thursday after the release of December producer price data in the United States, which suggested a slowdown in inflation, which in the eyes of the investors, dims the prospect of an accelerated tightening of monetary policy by the US central bank.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 97.48 points, or 0.27%, to 36,387.8 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.25% to 4,738.41 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.37%, or 56.20 points, to 15,244.60.
An hour before the opening of Wall Street, the US Department of Labor announced that jobless claims last week had risen to 230,000 against an average figure of 200,000 expected by economists.
On the inflation side, statistics from the Labor Department indicate that the rise in producer prices in the United States decelerated much more than expected in December compared to November to settle at 0.2% and 9.7% over one year while economists forecast 0.4% and 9.8% respectively.
“These numbers are high and certainly not good, but they were expected,” comments Joe Saluzzi, co-director of trading at Themis Trading. “So the market is not really worried and it’s not selling on it,” he added.
On Wednesday, the indexes on Wall Street had already been supported by the publication of consumer price figures in December in the United States, broadly in line with expectations.
For investors, these data ease the pressure in favor of a rapid rise in interest rates in the United States, while the markets still feared a few days ago up to four increases in the cost of credit this year, before the statements Tuesday to Congress by Jerome Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).
Governor Lael Brainard, who is to be auditioned at 3:00 p.m. GMT by the Senate Banking Committee for the post of vice-chairman of the Fed, considered that controlling inflation was the institution’s priority.
On the value side, among the first big results for companies, Delta Air lines gained 1.6% after the publication of earnings above expectations for the fourth quarter.
American Airlines and United Airlines are up 1.4% and 1.2% respectively.
Semiconductor makers like Nvidia, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and Advanced Micro Devices take between 0.9% and 1.8%, with Taiwanese chip giant TSMC (+7.5%) saying on Thursday it expects strong growth in the years to come.
The index of banking stocks rose 0.52% as Friday’s publication of the sector’s results approaches, which marks the real kick-off of the financial accounts season.
Quarterly earnings growth for companies making up the S&P-500 is estimated at 22.4%, according to data from Refinitiv.