The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose Thursday, as traders weighed new inflation data that increased hopes the Federal Reserve could begin cutting rates next year. Wall Street is poised to wrap up November with the strongest monthly gains in over a year.
The 30-stock index gained 246.88 points to open Thursday at 35,677.30.
The S&P 500 slid 0.34 points to 4,550.24.
The NASDAQ lost 47.83 points to 14,210.66.
The Dow was flirting with a new 2023 closing high, trading right around its previous high close set in August. It was just inches away from an intraday high for the year as well. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite were trading about 1% away from their respective 2023 highs.
Leading the Dow higher on Thursday is cloud software company Salesforce, which popped more than 7.5% on the back of better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal third quarter. Salesforce's cloud data business, which saw its revenue increase by 22% from the previous year, and its artificial intelligence product Einstein GPT were behind the positive report.
Data released early Thursday showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index—the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge—rose in line with expectations in October, gaining 0.2% for the month and 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. The numbers could provide an incentive for the Fed to hold rates steady, before lowering them in 2024.
The major averages remain on track to close November with sizeable gains, which would end a three-month losing streak for the indexes.
The S&P 500 is up 8.6% in November, while the NASDAQ has advanced 11%. Both averages are tracking for their best monthly performance since July 2022. The Dow is up 7.8% in November, on pace for its best month since October 2022.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sank, raising yields to 4.34% from Wednesday's 4.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained $1.16 to $79.02 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $9.30 to $2,037.80.