Financial Markets                      06/12 15:31

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stock indexes ticked higher on Thursday following 
another encouraging update on inflation across the country.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to pull back with 1.6% of its record. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average added 101 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 
0.2%.

   Oracle pushed upward on the market after jumping 13.3%. The tech giant 
delivered stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts 
expected, and CEO Safra Catz said it expects revenue growth "will be 
dramatically higher" in its upcoming fiscal year.

   That helped offset a 4.8% loss for Boeing after Air India said a 
London-bound flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport 
Thursday with 242 passengers and crew onboard. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner 
crashed into a residential area near the airport five minutes after taking off. 
The cause of the crash wasn't immediately known.

   Stocks broadly got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market 
following the latest update on inflation. Thursday's said inflation at the 
wholesale level wasn't as bad last month as economists expected, and it 
followed a report on Wednesday saying something similar about the inflation 
that U.S. consumers are feeling.

   Wall Street took it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will have more 
leeway to cut interest rates later this year in order to give the economy a 
boost.

   The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it's been 
on hold this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it's waiting 
to see how much President Donald Trump's tariffs will hurt the economy and 
raise inflation. While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging 
businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.41% late Wednesday 
and from roughly 4.80% early this year.

   Besides the inflation data, a separate report on jobless claims also helped 
to weigh on Treasury yields. It said slightly more U.S. workers applied for 
unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, and the total number 
remained at the highest level in eight months. That could be an indication of a 
rise in layoffs across the country.

   "We believe that were it not for the uncertainty caused by the tariffs, the 
combined information coming from the inflation and labor-market data would have 
compelled the Fed to have resumed cutting its policy rate by now," according to 
Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

   The Fed's next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for next week, but the 
nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that it will stand pat again. 
Traders are betting it's likely to begin cutting in September, according to 
data from CME Group.

   Trump's on-and-off tariffs have raised worries about higher inflation and a 
possible recession, which had sent the S&P 500 roughly 20% below its record a 
couple months ago. But stocks have since rallied nearly all the way back on 
hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other 
countries.

   Many of Trump's tariffs are on hold at the moment to give time for 
negotiations, but Trump added to the uncertainty late Wednesday when he 
suggested the United States could send letters to other countries at some point 
"saying this is the deal. You can take it or you can leave it."

   On Wall Street, Chime Financial jumped 37.4% in its first day of trading on 
the Nasdaq. The technology company is trying to be the main financial hub for 
customers, connecting them with its bank partners.

   GameStop dropped 22.5% after saying it plans to raise $1.75 billion by 
borrowing at zero interest rates, though the lenders could choose to be repaid 
in the video-game retailer's stock instead of cash.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 23.02 points to 6,045.26. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average added 101.85 to 42,967.62, and the Nasdaq composite gained 
46.61 to 19,662.48.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia amid 
mostly modest movements. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was an outlier, and it tumbled 
1.4% to give back some of its strong recent gains.

   Hong Kong's index is still up nearly 20% for the year so far, towering over 
the U.S. stock market's gain of less than 3%.

   ___

   AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Seung Min Kim contributed.

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