Stocks rose higher on Wednesday as Wall Street continued to build on its November rally as traders reacted to more positive inflation data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed over 160 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite added roughly 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.16% or +7.18 points to 4,502.88
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.47% or +163.51 points to 34,991.21
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.07% or +9.45 points to 14,103.84
Offering another encouraging sign for inflation, October's producer price index (PPI) fell by 0.5% in its biggest monthly decline since April 2020, according to the Labor Department's report on Wednesday. On a yearly basis, headline PPI rose 1.3%, down from 2.2% in September. When excluding food and energy prices, core PPI was unchanged, while excluding food, energy and trade services, PPI rose 0.1%.
However, not all economic data was was positive on Wednesday, as U.S. retail sales data fell for the first time in seven months in October as consumers pulled back on spending. Monthly sales declined 0.1% last month, according to the Commerce Department's report, down from September's upwardly revised increase of 0.9%.
Providing more insight on the health of the retail sector, Target (NYSE: TGT) reported better-than-expected third-quarter results on Wednesday, driven by purchases in high-frequency categories like food and beauty. CFO Michael Fiddelke said on an earnings call that the retailer is "laser focused on moving both traffic and sales back into positive territory."
"A store can run more efficiently when their back rooms are free of inventory," Fiddelke added. "A distribution center runs more efficiently, with fewer touches, when it's not as full, too."
Elsewhere, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a funding bill late Tuesday in effort to curb a potential government shutdown, funding some parts of the government until Jan. 19 and others until Feb. 2 to give lawmakers more time to reach a longer-term funding resolution. The Senate is expected to pass the bill and it will become law once President Joe Biden signs it; the government is set to shutdown late Friday if a resolution is not reached.
"If Congress avoids a shutdown, it will likely be through yet another temporary extension. As we wrote recently, the longer the government operates under short-term extensions, the less likely it will be that Congress will reach a deal on full-year spending bills," Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius wrote in an Oct. 25 note, quoted by CNBC.
For Thursday, market participants will tune in to a day of Fedspeak for more clues on the central bank's next moves for interest rates. For earnings, companies including Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), and Warner Music Group (NASDAQ: WMG) are also set to report in the morning.