US stocks rise as markets focus on Fed easing stance

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks rose for a second straight time on Monday amid hopes that the Federal Reserve will ease its aggressive anti-inflation stance ahead of this week’s main earnings report.

Declining inflation and a disappointing December retail sales set the Fed poised for a slight turnaround after a string of big rate hikes.

Analysts pointed to a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that the 25 basis point rate hike could be even smaller at the Fed’s next meeting later this month.

“The market appears to be leaning slightly toward the conclusion that the Fed will eventually take its foot off the brakes, which will signal a booming economy, better earnings and better stocks,” said forecaster Hugh Johnson Economics. ‘ said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 33,629.56, up 0.8%.

The broad S&P 500 rose 1.2% to 4,019.81, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2% to 11,364.41.

This week’s calendar includes earnings calls from Boeing, Microsoft and Verizon. The analyst now expects S&P 500 company earnings to fall 4.6% year-over-year, according to FactSet.

Also on the agenda is the government’s first assessment of gross domestic product for the final quarter of 2022. The analyst predicts that the country, the world’s largest economy, will grow by 2.6%.

Among individual companies, Salesforce jumped 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that activist fund Elliott Management had bought billions of shares in the software giant.

Spotify Technology gained 2.1% after saying it would cut 6% of its nearly 10,000 employees in the latest cost-cutting announcement among tech companies. AFPMore