Stocks opened higher Thursday as Wall Street panned the latest inflation update, which came in not as bad as other recent readings on the same topic. The main indexes lost some steam midday, but managed a quick recovery with the Nasdaq Composite nabbing its first record close since November 2021.
Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said the Personal Consumption and Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation indicator that measures consumer spending, was up 0.3% from December to January – higher than the previous month's 0.1% rise, but in line with economists' expectations.
