Wall Street rises on inflation, banking hopes
US stocks rose on Tuesday, helped by optimism ahead of key inflation reports and as JPMorgan and other financial shares gained before earnings later this week. Investors are looking for further clues on whether price pressures are abating and if the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its interest rate hiking cycle. US consumer price data is due on Wednesday, while a producer prices report is due on Thursday. Several Fed officials said this week the central bank would likely need to raise rates further to curb inflation but that the end of its tightening cycle was getting close. JPMorgan Chase & Co shares advanced 1.6 percent after Jefferies upgraded the stock to a "buy" ahead of the bank's quarterly results due on Friday. Reports from JPMorgan and other big banks later this week are expected to unofficially kick off the start of the second-quarter reporting period. The S&P banking index rose 1.5 percent. Energy shares also jumped along with sharply higher oil prices. "It's nice to see the market broadening out here ahead of earnings," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "We've got a lot of data that's going to be coming in here ... and expectations for the third quarter are also a concern in terms of any guidance companies might be giving on earnings calls." The S&P 500 is up 15.6 percent for the year so far, with technology up 40 percent in that period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.93 percent, to 34,261, the S&P 500 gained 0.67 percent, to 4,439 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.55 percent, to 13,761. Among the S&P 500's biggest gainers on the day, shares of videogame maker Activision Blizzard jumped 10 percent after a US judge ruled that Microsoft may proceed with its planned acquisition of the "Call of Duty" game maker. (Reuters)