U.S. stocks ended mixed on Thursday, as investors once again bought the dip despite a disappointing wholesale inflation report, News.Az reports citing CNBC.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 11.01 points, or 0.02 percent, to close at 44,911.26. The S&P 500 inched up 1.96 points, or 0.03 percent, to 6,468.54, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 2.47 points, or 0.01 percent, to 21,710.67. Earlier in the day, both the S&P and Nasdaq were down as much as 0.4 percent before recovering, while the Dow had been more than 200 points lower at one point.
Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors declined, with industrials and materials leading declines, down 0.88 percent and 0.81 percent, respectively. Financials and health care were the top gainers, rising 0.55 percent and 0.5 percent.
The producer price index (PPI), which tracks prices for final demand goods and services, surged 0.9 percent in July -- the largest jump since June 2022 -- far exceeding the Dow Jones estimate of a 0.2 percent increase, according to a Thursday report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, also rose 0.9 percent, tripling the projected 0.3 percent. When excluding food, energy and trade services, the index climbed 0.6 percent, the fastest pace since March 2022.
On an annual basis, the headline PPI rose 3.3 percent, the largest increase since February, while core PPI rose 3.7 percent.
"Producers are starting to feel the inflation fire heat," Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, said Thursday. "It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs on to the backs of inflation-weary consumers."
Despite the stronger-than-expected inflation figure, traders continued to anticipate a September interest rate cut, with fed funds futures pricing in roughly a 93 percent probability, only marginally lower than the prior day, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
"It seems to be reasonably clear at this point that this wasn't enough to get the Fed off of another cut, or get it going on a cutting cycle," said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.
Mega-cap technology stocks mostly rose. Amazon gained 2.87 percent, while Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Broadcom posted smaller gains. Tesla fell 1 percent, and Apple edged slightly lower.
