Stocks rose higher on choppy Wednesday trade as market participants looked to recover from the biggest one-day drop on Wall Street since June 2020. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, climbing about 0.75%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 posted modest gains on the day.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
The session's moves follow a steep sell-off on Tuesday, where the Dow dropped over 1,200 points and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell over 5% and 4%, respectively, after a hotter-than-expected inflation report for August all but guaranteed another 75 basis point interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve later this month.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) registered a 0.1% rise month-to-month and 8.3% gain over the prior year for August, topping expectations for a decline from July to August and an 8.1% annual rise.
The red hot inflation report sparked some fears that the central bank could potentially increase interest rates at an even faster pace than the 75 basis points Wall Street is now expecting. In recent remarks, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed will continue to raise interest rates "until the job is done" to bring inflation within the Fed's goal of 2%--this could include a possible 1 point hike.
Elsewhere, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for August showed wholesale prices declined 0.1% month-over-month, matching expectations. Excluding more volatile food, energy and trade service prices, core PPI rose 0.2%, less than the 0.3% expected by economists.
Annually, headline PPI rose 8.7% in August, a pullback from the 9.8% rise in July and the lowest annual gain since August 2021. Core PPI also increased 5.6% year-over-year, matching the lowest rate since June 2021.
Elsewhere, Netflix
Looking ahead, Wall Street will continue to weigh recent inflation data ahead of the Fed's September 20-21 policy-setting meeting next week.
