U.S. stocks opened broadly higher on Tuesday, as investors reacted to a faster-than-anticipated U.S. inflation reading.
The annualized reading of the closely-watched consumer price index increased by 3.2% last month, quicker than estimates that it would remain at a pace of 3.1% notched in January. The year-on-year core figure, which strips out volatile items like food and fuel, cooled to 3.8% from 3.9%, but was still slightly above projections of 3.7%.
Month-on-month, the overall consumer price index rose by 0.4% in February, in line with expectations and faster than the 0.3% uptick in January. The core gauge came in at 0.4%, matching the prior month and marginally hotter than expectations of 0.3%.
The data pointed to possibly sticky inflationary pressures that could complicate the timing of potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year. Several Fed officials, chiefly Chair Jerome Powell, have warned that the central bank’s plans for reductions in 2024 will be largely dictated by the path of inflation.
The benchmark S&P 500 had risen 0.2%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had added 0.2%, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had dipped by 0.1% by 09:38 ET (13:38 GMT).
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) was one of the best performers in early dealmaking, surging nearly 13% after clocking stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on increased demand for its AI offerings.
The cloud computing firm said it will make a joint announcement with AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) this week, citing expectations of increased demand for cloud infrastructure from the growing AI industry.
Gains in Oracle spilled over into other tech heavyweights, given that AI hype has been a key driver of stock gains in recent months. Nvidia rose 1.8%, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) edged up by 1.1% and 0.4%, respectively.
Ambar Warrick contributed to this report.
https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/us-stock-futures-cheered-by-positive-oracle-earnings-cpi-data-awaited-3333288
