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March CPI data due on Wednesday
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CarMax rallies on quarterly profit beat
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Crypto stocks climb as bitcoin breaches $30k level
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Indexes: Dow up 0.47%, S&P climbs 0.25%, Nasdaq off 0.16%
(Updates mid-afternoon, adds NEW YORK dateline, changes byline)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 crept
higher on Tuesday as investors awaited crucial inflation data
and the unofficial kick-off of first-quarter reporting season.
The Dow joined the S&P 500 in positive territory with
economically sensitive sectors such as industrials and
materials providing upside momentum, while tech and tech-adjacent megacap shares dragged the Nasdaq into the red.
With a lack of market moving catalysts, investors looked
ahead to Wednesday's consumer price index (CPI) for any evidence
that the long, slow inflation cooldown continues.
"You're seeing renewed interest in cyclical stocks," said
Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in
Fairfield, Connecticut. "There seems to be some interest in
these stocks heading into tomorrow's inflation report."
On a monthly basis, analysts see headline and core CPI
cooling to 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. But year-on-year, while
consensus estimates call for a significant drop in the headline
number - to 5.2% from 6.0% - the core measure, which strips out
volatile food and energy prices, is expected to gain heat,
rising to 5.6% from 5.5%.
As inflation slowly returns to the Federal Reserve's average
annual 2% target, market participants are banking on a 70%
likelihood of another 25 basis point interest rate hike at the
conclusion of its May monetary policy meeting, according to
CME's FedWatch tool.
"(The) 25 basis point hike is probably going to happen, and
is baked into stock prices," Pavlik added. "How they position it
for the next meeting is key, because so many people are
expecting a downturn in the economy.
"The market could really react negatively to another rate
hike after May."
Beyond CPI, investors are eyeing first-quarter reporting
season, which surges from the starting gate this Friday with
results from three major banks, Citigroup Inc , JPMorgan
Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co .
Analysts expect aggregate first-quarter S&P 500 earnings
falling 5.2% year-on-year, a stark reversal from the 1.4% annual
growth seen at the beginning of the quarter.
At 2:10PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose
156.62 points, or 0.47%, to 33,743.14, the S&P 500 gained
10.23 points, or 0.25%, to 4,119.34 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.42 points, or 0.16%, to 12,064.94.
Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, energy and materials were enjoying the biggest percentage
gains, while communication services and tech were in the red.
Cryptocurrency-related shares such as Coinbase Global Inc , Riot Platforms Inc and Marathon Digital
Holdings Inc climbed between 8% and 17% as bitcoin broke through the $30,000 level for the first time in
10 months.
CarMax Inc surged 10.4% after the used-car retailer
posted a consensus-beating quarterly profit.
Drugmaker Moderna Inc slipped 2.8% after the
company said its closely watched flu vaccine failed to meet the
criteria for "early success" in a late-stage trial.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a
4.25-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.72-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 86 new lows.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Sruthi
Shankar and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru and Richard Chang)
