NEW YORK—Stocks climbed Tuesday as Wall Street prepared for an upcoming update on inflation that will hopefully show a smaller increase in pain for everyone.
The S&P 500 rose 29.73, or 0.7 percent, to 4,439.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 317.02 points, or 0.9 percent, to 34,261.42, and the Nasdaq composite added 75.22, or 0.5 percent, to 13,760.70.
Activision Blizzard jumped 10 percent for one of the market’s larger gains after a judge ruled Microsoft could move forward on its $69 billion takeover of the video game maker. Salesforce was the biggest force driving the Dow after climbing 3.9 percent on price increases announced for its products. Amazon also pushed the market upward and rose 1.3 percent on the first day of its annual Prime Day sales event.
Much of Wall Street’s gains for the day came at the end of trading, with about a third of the S&P 500’s rise happening in the final 20 minutes. The week’s main event will arrive Wednesday, when the U.S. government will offer the latest update on inflation at the consumer level. Economists expect to see another slowdown, with prices 3.1 percent higher in June than a year earlier, down from inflation of 4 percent in May and just above 9 percent last summer.
The hope on Wall Street is that a continued easing in inflation will convince the Federal Reserve to stop its hikes to interest rates soon. High rates have helped pull down inflation, but they’ve also caused cracks in the banking, manufacturing and other industries while also hurting prices for stocks and other investments.
Later in the week, companies will begin telling investors how much profit they made during the spring, and expectations are largely dim. Analysts are forecasting the sharpest drop in earnings per share for S&P 500 companies since the pandemic was crushing the global economy in the spring of 2020.
This upcoming reporting season could mark the trough for corporate profit declines, according to strategists at Bank of America. They point to some resilient trends in the economy, as well as how many companies are offering forecasts for upcoming results that are above analysts’ expectations.
“We expect companies to sound more upbeat than in prior quarters,” strategists including Ohsung Kwon wrote in a BofA Global Research report. “Companies are likely to highlight bottoming process in business conditions and building momentum throughout the quarter and into July.”
Because of the low bar set for companies for the spring, they may be able to squeak past without much heroics.
WD-40 jumped 18.5 percent after it said it returned to growth in revenue during the three months through May following two straight quarters of flat to down sales. It reported stronger growth in both profit and revenue than analysts expected, and it said it’s sticking with its forecasts for full-year sales and profit.
On the losing side of Wall Street were several cruise operators, which lost momentum following a torrid start to the year. Carnival fell 2.1 percent, and Royal Caribbean slipped 1.9 percent. Both, though, are still up more than 100 percent for the year so far.
Bank of America drifted between losses and gains after regulators ordered it to $250 million in customer refunds and fines. It ended with a gain of 1.3 percent after regulators said it double-dipped on fees, withheld rewards on credit cards and opened accounts without customers’ knowledge.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed after rising last week on expectations the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer in its campaign to get inflation under control.
The 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 3.97 percent from 4.00 percent late Monday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other loans.
The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, inched up 4.88 percent from 4.86 percent.
