Tech rally, hot inflation, oil prices buoyant- what’s moving markets

investing.com:

Investing.com-- Markets will be watching to see whether major U.S. technology stocks can continue to help Wall Street rise past growing concerns over higher-for-longer interest rates, following upbeat consumer price index inflation data. Gold prices fell from record highs after the reading, with more U.S. inflation cues also on tap later this week. 

U.S. stock index futures fell slightly on Wednesday, after a rally in tech stocks helped Wall Street rise sharply in the prior session. The S&P 500 finished at record highs on Tuesday, while the NASDAQ Composite jumped 1.6%. TheDow Jones Industrial Average was held back by losses in Boeing Co (NYSE:BA). 

Gains were triggered largely by persistent optimism over artificial intelligence, after cloud computing giant Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) clocked better-than-expected earnings and said it was planning to partner with market darling NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) for its AI ambitions. 

Nvidia- the third-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, rallied over 7% on Tuesday, and was up nearly 1% in premarket trade. Gains in the stock spilled over into other AI-exposed stocks, with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) rising between 0.6% and 4%.

Strength in tech helped Wall Street largely look past hotter-than-expected CPI inflation data.

CPI data showed inflation remained stickier than expected in February, while also tending well above the Fed’s 2% annual target range. The reading also came after several Fed officials warned that sticky inflation will keep the central bank from cutting interest rates early.

But markets largely maintained bets that the Fed will begin cutting rates by June 2024, according to