US close: Stocks rise ahead of August's inflation reading

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks finished above the waterline on Monday, as market participants geared up for the release of August's consumer price index later in the week.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.71% at 32,381.34, as the S&P 500 added 1.06% to 4,110.41, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.27% to 12,266.41.

The Dow closed 229.63 points higher on Monday, extending the gains recorded on Friday when the major indices snapped a three-week losing streak.

Stocks were higher through the session as investors held their breath for last month's CPI reading on Tuesday, and the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting later in the month.

The central bank is widely expected to deliver its third straight 0.75% interest rate hike as part of an ongoing effort to fight high inflation, following a similar move by the European Central Bank last week.

“The next Fed decision will soon begin to loom large, and it is likely that even a softer CPI reading in the US this week will not deter the FOMC from another bumper rate hike,” said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.

“The broader outlook still remains tough, and it makes sense to expect indices to reverse course in the weeks to come.”

Also drawing investor attention was news that the White House was planning to curb shipments of chipmaking tools and chips used for artificial intelligence to China, according to Reuters.

Energy prices were mixed after the closing bell in New York, with West Texas Intermediate futures last up 0.42% at $88.15 per barrel on NYMEX, while Brent crude was unchanged on ICE at $94.00.

Prices for the thick black stuff jumped last week after Vladimir Putin threatened to halt oil and gas exports to Europe.

No major data points were slated for release stateside on Monday, but in corporate news, Twitter slid 1.85% after it described Elon Musk’s most recent attempt to back out of his $44bn bid for the social network as “invalid”.

On the upside, Bristol-Myers Squibb added 3.14% after the drugmaker got approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its plaque psoriasis treatment ‘Sotyktu’.

Elsewhere, banking behemoth Goldman Sachs managed gains of 0.73% after the Wall Street Journal claimed it was planning to lay off “hundreds” of staff from next week.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com. Additional reporting by Iain Gilbert.

Dow Jones - Risers

Apple Inc. (AAPL) $163.43 3.85%
American Express Co. (AXP) $162.45 2.53%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $165.63 1.87%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $162.50 1.58%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $192.40 1.54%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $46.40 1.38%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $531.25 1.32%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $112.38 1.27%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $42.76 1.23%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $120.58 1.18%