US Stock Markets Today: S&P 500 Hits New Record Post Fresh Inflation Data; Oracle Shares Decline

S&P 500 and Dow Jones rose on Thursday as traders anticipate that the latest consumer inflation numbers will not stop the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates for the first time this year. Minutes after the open, S&P 500 hit a new all-time intraday high.

The S&P 500 rose over 0.33%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.42%, and Dow Jones was trading 0.21% higher. Oracle share fell nearly 2% Thursday after posting a monster rally in the last session.

This comes after the markets saw a second straight finish at all-time closing highs for the S&P 500 on Wednesday, following the giant surge in Oracle shares. While Nasdaq Composite ended higher, Dow Jones lost over 200 points.

The core consumer price index, excluding the often-volatile food and energy categories, rose 0.3% from July, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“It’s clear that inflation is relatively calm, which gives the Fed the flexibility to focus more on stemming ongoing weakness in the labor market,” Skyler Weinand at Regan Capital told Bloomberg. “We expect the Fed to cut 25 by basis points next week and to follow through with another two 25 basis point cuts this year,” the analyst added.

In the early minutes of trading, nine of the 11 sectoral indices were trading in green. Health sector was leading the gains while communication services were in red.

Salesforce Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Apple Inc. and Nike Inc. were amongst the other gainers for the day. Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. were also amongst the drags.

As the US market opened, spot gold fell 0.5% to $3,624.11 an ounce. Crude oil prices fell, with the West Texas trading 1.9% lower at $62.44 per barrel.

The Bloomberg Dollar Index was little changed, with the British Pound rising 0.1% to $1.3544 and the Japanese yen stable at 147.53 per dollar.

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, was little changed at $113,617.69.