US open: Stocks rally as CPI cools more than expected

Wall Street stocks opened sharply higher on Thursday after October's consumer price index fell more than expected and Treasury yields tumbled amid hopes that inflation may be peaking.

As of 1500 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.28% at 33,256.66, while the S&P 500 advanced 3.42% to 3,876.71 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 4.44% firmer at 10,813.26.

The Dow opened 742.72 points higher on Thursday, erasing losses recorded in the previous session.

Thursday's primary focus was news that the cost of living in the US slipped by more than expected last month, according to the Department of Labor, with the annual rate of increase in consumer prices dropping from 8.2% in September to 7.7% in October. Economists expected to see headline CPI rise by 0.6% month-on-month - or 7.9% year-on-year. At the core level, meanwhile, CPI slipped from 6.7% to 6.3%.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note tumbled on the news, dropping more than 24 basis points to 3.891%, while the two-year note slid 31 basis points to 4.341%.

US midterms also remained in focus, with traders seemingly hoping that Republicans would be able to take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate following Tuesday's elections – creating an impasse in Washington, DC. However, races in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada remained tightly contested early on Thursday, while the Senate race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will now head to a December runoff.

Elsewhere on the macro front, first-time jobless claims rose by 7,000 in the week ended 5 November, according to the Labor Department, with the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims hitting 225,000. The same report also revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate came to 1.0% for the week ended 29 October, unchanged from the previous week's rate.

Still to come, the Federal Government's monthly budget statement will follow at 1900 GMT.

In the corporate space, dating app Bumble plummeted in early trade after it posted third-quarter revenues that came in well below Wall Street expectations, while Binance shares were also in the red after it backed out of a deal to acquire crypto exchange FTX.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com