Wall Street gets a late push ahead of inflation data; Activision Blizzard jumps

Stocks climbed Tuesday as Wall Street prepared for an upcoming update on inflation that will hopefully show a smaller increase in pain for everyone.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 29.73 points, or 0.7%, to 4,439.26. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 317.02 points, or 0.9%, to 34,261.42, and the Nasdaq composite added 75.22 points, or 0.5%, to close at 13,760.70.

Activision Blizzard jumped 10% for one of the market’s larger gains after a judge ruled Microsoft could move forward on its $69-billion takeover of the video game maker. Salesforce was the largest force driving the Dow after climbing 3.9% on price increases announced for its products. Amazon also pushed the market upward and rose 1.3% on the first day of its annual Prime Day sales event.

Much of Wall Street’s gains for the day came at the end of trading, with about a third of the S&P 500’s rise happening in the final 20 minutes. The week’s main event will arrive Wednesday, when the U.S. government will offer the latest update on inflation at the consumer level. Economists expect to see another slowdown, with prices 3.1% higher in June than a year earlier, down from inflation of 4% in May and just above 9% last summer.

The hope on Wall Street is that a continued easing in inflation will convince the Federal Reserve to stop its interest rate increases soon. High rates have helped pull down inflation, but they’ve also caused cracks in the banking, manufacturing and other industries while also hurting prices for stocks and other investments.

Later in the week, companies will begin telling investors how much profit they made during the spring, and expectations are probably dim. Analysts are forecasting the sharpest drop in earnings per share for S&P 500 companies since the pandemic was crushing the global economy in the spring of 2020.

This upcoming reporting season could mark the trough for corporate profit declines, according to strategists at Bank of America. They point to some resilient trends in the economy, as well as how many companies are offering forecasts for upcoming results that are above analysts’ expectations.

“We expect companies to sound more upbeat than in prior quarters,” strategists including Ohsung Kwon wrote in a BofA Global Research report. “Companies are likely to highlight … building momentum throughout the quarter and into July.”

Because of the low bar set for companies for the spring, they may be able to squeak past without much heroics.

WD-40 jumped 18.5% after it said it returned to growth in revenue during the three months through May after two straight quarters of flat to down sales. It reported stronger growth in both profit and revenue than analysts expected, and it said it’s sticking with its forecasts for full-year sales and profit.

On the losing side of Wall Street were several cruise operators, which lost momentum after a torrid start to the year. Carnival fell 2.1% and Royal Caribbean slipped 1.9%. Both, though, are still up more than 100% for the year so far.

Bank of America drifted between losses and gains after regulators ordered it to pay $250 million in customer refunds and fines. It ended with a gain of 1.3% after regulators said it double-dipped on fees, withheld rewards on credit cards and opened accounts without customers’ knowledge.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed after rising last week on expectations the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer in its campaign to get inflation under control.

The 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 3.97% from 4.00% late Monday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other loans.

The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, inched up 4.88% from 4.86%.

In markets abroad, most stock indexes rose. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1%, South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.7% and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1%.

Stocks in London rose 0.1% after a report showed U.K. wages are rising at a record rate amid stubbornly high inflation. That’s bolstering expectations for the central bank there to keep raising interest rates.

AP writers Matt Ott and Joe McDonald contributed to this report.