Another encouraging inflation reading and a positive session for several mega-cap stocks lifted the broad market Wednesday. A solid round of earnings reports also boosted sentiment, though gains were capped by a down day for chip stocks.
Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures what businesses pay suppliers for goods, fell 0.3% from May to June. Year over year, wholesale prices were up 5.5%.
“Nearly two-thirds of the June decline in the index for final demand goods can be traced to prices for gasoline, which dropped 12.0 percent,” the BLS said.
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Core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% month over month and 5.1% year over year.
The inflation readings came in better than economists expected, while Wall Street also welcomed downward revisions to the PPI for both April and May.
“The PPI report’s largest new piece of information is its downward revisions to inflation in the last few months,” says Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank.
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While Adams believes the cool inflation readings, also seen in the June CPI report, will keep the Federal Reserve on hold when it meets in two weeks, he notes that “it’s hard to feel too excited about last month’s drop in producer prices, which largely reflected lower energy prices — prices which rebounded in the first half of July as energy traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slowed.”
Nevertheless, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to 52,658 today, while the broader S&P 500 (+0.4% at 7,572) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (+0.6% at 26,269) closed higher too.
Mega caps rise, but chip stocks struggle
Big gains in several mega-cap stocks helped buoy the main indexes today, with Amazon.com (AMZN, +3.0%), Apple (AAPL, +4.0%), Microsoft (MSFT, +2.8%) and Alphabet (GOOGL, +3.2%) all closing higher.
But the day’s upside was contained by another negative session for several semiconductor stocks. Micron Technology (MU), for one, dropped 8.0% and is now down 22% since the start of July. Sandisk (SNDK) fell 8.1% today and is off 29% month to date.
BlackRock pops on earnings, Conagra falls on dividend cut
Over on the earnings calendar, BlackRock (BLK) jumped 6.6% after the asset management firm reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. Additionally, BLK became the first investment company to have assets under management top $15 trillion.
Conagra Brands (CAG), on the other hand, fell 0.4% after the Duncan Hines parent swung to a net loss in its second quarter. On an adjusted basis, CAG beat analysts’ per-share earnings estimate, though revenue fell short.
The company also halved its dividend. “Resetting our dividend to an annualized rate of $0.70 per share proactively realigns our capital allocation, accelerates progress toward our leverage target, supports critical investments, and strengthens our financial flexibility, including the ability to shape the portfolio over time,” said CEO John Brase, who stepped into the position in early June.
Today’s decline is only more of the same for the struggling consumer staples stock, which is down 30% since mid-February.
PayPal has its best day ever
PayPal Holdings (PYPL) was also in focus Wednesday, with shares jumping 17.2% — their biggest one-day gain since the payments processor was spun off from eBay (EBAY, +0.2%) in 2015.
Boosting the financial stock were reports that financial services platform Stripe and private equity firm Advent International offered to buy PayPal for $53 billion, or $60.50 per PYPL share — a nearly 28% premium to its July 14 close.
PYPL has struggled in recent years and is down more than 80% from its all-time high near $310 in 2021.
