United States benchmarks ended in a mixed fashion on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closing at a record high after wholesale inflation data came in cooler than expected.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 220.42 points, or 0.5%, to 45,490.92, weighed down by Apple after its latest iPhone announcement failed to impress investors.
The S&P 500 advanced 19.4 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 6,532.0, notching a fresh all-time close.
The Nasdaq Composite added 6.6 points, or 0.03%, to 21,886.1, also securing a record close despite paring earlier gains.
Artificial intelligence (AI) linked stocks powered much of the upside. Oracle jumped 36%, its best day since 1992, after reporting multicloud database revenue growth of 1,529% from partnerships with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, fuelled by AI server demand.
Broadcom rose 9.8%, Nvidia added 3.9%, and AMD climbed 2.4%.
On the economic front, the U.S. producer price index (PPI) showed wholesale prices slipped 0.1% in August, defying expectations for a 0.3% rise. Core PPI, excluding food and energy, also fell 0.1% against forecasts of a 0.3% gain.
The data reinforced hopes that inflationary pressures are easing ahead of Thursday’s consumer price index (CPI) release. CPI to rise 0.3% on both the headline and core readings, which would lift annual headline inflation to 2.9% while leaving core unchanged at 3.1%.
Traders priced in a full certainty that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by at least 25 basis points at its next meeting, with an 8% chance of a deeper 50-basis-point move, according to the CME Group FedWatch Tool.
On the bond markets, yields eased, with the 10-year Treasury down 1% to 4.045% and the 2-year yield 0.3% lower at 3.544%.
