US stocks close at all-time highs ahead of key inflation update

• US stocks jumped to record highs on Wednesday.

• Indexes hit fresh all-time highs ahead of the key inflation report for September due Thursday.

• The CPI reading is a higher stakes event after the big September jobs report.

US stocks jumped on Wednesday as traders looked ahead to coming inflation data and took in the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting.

All three benchmark indexes surged to end the day higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 400 points to a record close, while the S&P 500 also notched a fresh all-time closing high.

Investors pushed past concerns about Google parent Alphabet to take the Nasdaq Composite 0.6% higher. The Department of Justice on Wednesday said it’s considering breaking up the tech titan to remedy its status as a monopoly in the search engine space.

Bond yields rose, with the 10-year Treasury yield up three basis points to 4.071%.

Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Wednesday:

Investors have an eye on Thursday’s consumer price index report, an inflation reading that will serve as a key input when the Fed meets to discuss its next rates move. The stakes of the next inflation reading have risen after the big September jobs number, and Wall Street could be in for some volatility in the event of an upside surprise, Bank of America said this week.

Economists are expecting consumer prices to have risen 0.1% for the month and 2.3% year-per-year in September, slightly cooler than the increases recorded in August.

“The Federal Reserve appears to remain comfortable with where inflation is and trending,” Josh Hirt, a senior US economist at Vanguard, said in a note. “Although inflation remains elevated, we do not see a material effect on the Fed’s trajectory of rate cuts.”

Markets also gained some confidence over the path of rate cuts after the Fed released the minutes of its September FOMC meeting. Central bankers predicted inflation would fall to 2% by 2026, while risks to economic strength were “tilted to the downside.”

Some officials, though, said they would have preferred a 25 basis-point cut at the Fed’s last meeting, while “a few others indicated they could have supported such a decision,” the minutes said.

“[W]e think that FOMC is still spending too much time looking in the rear-view mirror, taking too much comfort from the recent strength of the economy, and not paying enough attention to leading indicators pointing to weakness ahead, and the likely lagged impact of earlier tightening,” Oliver Allen, a senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note.

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“We expect the Fed to be acting for far more urgency to avert a significant slowdown around the turn of this year, as the economic data continue to head in that direction.”

Markets are largely expecting the Fed to cut rates by 25 basis points at their next two meetings, bringing the Federal funds rate range to 4.25%- 4.5% by the end of the year. According to the CME FedWatch tool, the odds for another jumbo-sized rate cut in 2024 have fallen to zero.

Here’s what else is going on:

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil traded slightly lower at 73.47 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 0.5% to $76.79 a barrel.

• Gold slumped 0.55% to $2,607.68 an ounce.

• The 10-year Treasury yield edged up three basis points to 4.071%.

• Bitcoin declined 2% to $60,91.

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