Wall Street Rises on Fed Rate Cut Hopes, Oracle Surge and Semiconductor Rally

The S&P 500 rose 19.43 points (0.3%) to 6,532.04 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 6.57 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 21,886.06. The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand edged down by 0.1% in August after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.7% in July. The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 2.6% in August from a downwardly revised 3.1% in July. The data added to recent optimism about the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates by at least a quarter point at its monetary policy meeting next week. Following the report, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 92.1% chance of a quarter-point rate cut and a slim 7.9% chance of a half-point rate cut. The markets also benefitted from a surge by shares of Oracle (ORCL), with the software company soaring by 36%. The spike by Oracle came after the company reported slightly weaker than expected fiscal first quarter earnings but said it expects cloud infrastructure revenue to skyrocket to $144 billion in fiscal 2030 from $10.3 billion in fiscal 2025. Buying waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation on Thursday. Semiconductor stocks substantially moved upwards, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.4% to a record closing high. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) surged by 3.8% after the chipmaker reported strong August revenue growth. Gold stocks were considerably strong, as reflected by the 2.2% jump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The strength in the sector came as the price of gold inched up to a new record closing high. Oil service, natural gas and utilities stocks also saw significant strength on the day while retail and biotechnology stocks showed notable moves to the upside. Asia-Pacific stocks moved mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.9%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped by 1%. The major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day while the French CAC 40 Index crept up by 0.2%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.2% and the German DAX Index fell by 0.4%. In the bond market, treasuries moved back to the upside following the pullback seen on Tuesday. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, slid 4.2 bps to a five-month closing low of 4.03%.