(Bloomberg/Natalia Kniazhevich) US stocks advanced, driven by tech shares, after an OpenAI share sale valued the artificial intelligence company at an $500 billion. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 9:33 am in New York, while the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.5%. Stocks climbed even as the US government shutdown stretched into a second day, causing a delay of weekly jobless claims and factory orders data. A separate report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that US employers dialed back hiring plans in September,
Stocks got some help from a report showing that inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.6% in July, according to the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use. While that's above the Fed's 2% target, and it's more painful than any household would like, it was precisely what economists had forecast. That offered some hope that the Fed could continue cutting interest rates in order to give the economy a boost.
Google dodged a breakup that would have included selling its Chrome browser after a judge ruled against the government's toughest proposals in the biggest antitrust case in three decades. The decision was also a big win for Apple, as Google will still be allowed to pay its partners. Apple gets about $20 billion a year for making Google search the default on iPhones. Alphabet shares rallied 8%, touching a record high; Apple rose 2%.
The moves were stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields rose after a report forced Wall Street to scale back hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon deliver relief by cutting interest rates. The report suggested growth in U.S. business activity is accelerating and hit its fastest rate so far this year. That's good news for the economy, but the preliminary data from S&P Global also said tariffs helped push up average selling prices at the fastest rate in three years. That's a discouraging sign for inflation.
President Trump is taking recent stock-market highs as a sign investors approve of his threats to slap tariffs on trading partners—and so far, the markets are proving him right.