Stocks rallied on Wall Street Wednesday
after government data showed consumer prices had risen less than expected.
Prices for US consumer goods rose at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.2 per cent
in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said..
The Consumer Price Index increase was less than analysts had predicted and
declined from a 0.3 per cent increase in March despite rising food prices.
"Lower inflation is extraordinarily important for the market," Eric
Green of Penn Capital Management told Bloomberg financial news. "It's
wonderful news to have an economy that is being stimulated by a lot of things
and at the same time prices are not going up. This could allow financial and
discretionary stocks to perform in the short term."
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 66.20 points, or 0.5 per cent,
to 12,898.38. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 5.62 points,
or 0.4 per cent, to 1,408.66. The technology- heavy Nasdaq Composite Index
picked up 1.58 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,496.70.
The dollar dipped to 64.61 euro cents from 64.63 euro cents on Tuesday and
gained against the Japanese currency to 105.08 yen from 104.76 yen.
Gold fell 3.10 dollars to 866.50 dollars per fine ounce, dpa reported.