Stocks Edge Higher as Fed Rate-Hike Bets Ease: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks traded close to record highs after a subdued US inflation report reinforced hopes that the Federal Reserve won’t need to raise interest rates next month.
Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 edged higher. Europe’s Stoxx 600 benchmark gained 0.2%. Treasuries rose across the curve with the yield on rate-sensitive two-year notes dropping two basis points to 4.18%.
A benign US inflation print gives the Fed more room to stay on hold at a time when energy prices remain stubbornly elevated. Brent crude was trading around $88 a barrel after rising 12% over the prior six days as hopes for progress reopening the Strait of Hormuz remained elusive.
“The latest report has given the Fed enough room to maneuver if they decide not to hike in September,” said Richard Flax, chief investment officer at Moneyfarm. “Inflation data are not too bad given the oil shock we’ve seen.”
US consumer prices rose 0.2% in July from a month earlier, in line with economists’ forecasts, while a key underlying inflation gauge matched its slowest pace since March 2021, data Wednesday showed.
Concern about sticky inflation and widening budget deficits have helped keep longer-maturity Treasury yields elevated. Thursday’s 30-year bond sale is expected to price at the highest financing rate in 25 years, after a $42 billion auction of 10-year notes drew the highest yield since 2007.
The AI trade regained momentum Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi Index rallied 4% to enter a technical bull market, with chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. both adding more than 4%. Shares of Lenovo Group Ltd surged 22% in Hong Kong after the Chinese computer maker’s revenue beat estimates.
However, there was lingering caution as Cisco Systems Inc.’s earnings failed to impress, sending its shares down 4.1% in extended trading. Cerebras Systems Inc. tumbled 17% after sales declined at its hardware business.
Elsewhere, the yen traded steady around 159.39 per dollar. That came after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government was supportive of a near-term rate hike by the Bank of Japan, with the next move likely either in September or October, according to people familiar with the matter.
Corporate Highlights:
Anthropic PBC is in talks to buy the artificial intelligence startup Decart AI for about $6 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. DeepSeek has set up an official social media account and posted job listings for a new team focused on helping develop artificial intelligence agents that can take on services like Anthropic PBC’s popular Claude Code. Maersk boosted its underlying Ebitda guidance for the full year; the guidance beat the average analyst estimate. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The Stoxx Europe 600 was little changed as of 8:33 a.m. London time S&P 500 futures rose 0.1% Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.2% Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.8% The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.8% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1521 The Japanese yen was little changed at 159.37 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.7468 per dollar The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.3481 Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 0.5% to $63,840.46 Ether rose 0.6% to $1,896.14 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.68% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 3.16% Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.97% Commodities
Brent crude fell 0.7% to $87.97 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.8% to $4,374.61 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Elaine Lai, Aya Wagatsuma and Anand Krishnamoorthy.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
