The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied Thursday to a new high for the year, as more cooling inflation data and strong Salesforce earnings capped the benchmark's best month since October 2022.
The 30-stock index took the elevator 502.24 points, or 1.5%, higher to conclude Thursday at 35,950.84, surpassing its previous high for the year in August.
The S&P 500 recovered 17.22 points to 4,567.80.
The NASDAQ dropped 32.27 points, however, to 14,266.22.
The Dow is closing out November with an 8.9% gain, breaking its three-month losing streak. The S&P 500 is up 8.9% in November, while the NASDAQ has advanced 10.7%. Both averages had their best monthly performance since July 2022. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite were trading about 1% away from their respective 2023 highs.
Leading the Dow higher on Thursday is cloud software company Salesforce, which popped 9.4% on the back of better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal third quarter. Salesforce's cloud data business, which saw its revenue increase by 22% from the previous year, and its artificial intelligence product Einstein GPT were behind the positive report. Healthcare companies UnitedHealth Group, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Amgen also led the index higher.
Data released early Thursday showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index—the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge—rose 3.5% on a year-over-year basis, a slowing from a 3.7% annual gain in prior month.
Nvidia shed 2.9% on Thursday, but is still up 14.7% for the month. Tesla shares were off by 1.8% Thursday following a roughly 19% comeback in November. Alphabet shed 1.9% and Meta lost 1.5% during the day.
Data released early Thursday showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index—the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge—rose in line with expectations in October, gaining 0.2% for the month and 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. The numbers could provide an incentive for the Fed to hold rates steady, before lowering them in 2024.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sank, raising yields to 4.33% from Wednesday's 4.27%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost $2.33 to $75.53 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $10.70 to $2,036.40.
