| The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 466.84 points(2.5%) to 19,511.23. The Dow also jumped 703.27 points (1.7%) to 43,221.55 while the S&P 500 shot up 107.00 points (1.8%) to 5,949.91.
The Labor Department said its consumer price index climbed by 0.4% in December after rising by 0.3% in November. The report also said the annual rate of growth by consumer prices accelerated to 2.9% in December from 2.7% in November.
Due to the upbeat earnings news from financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C), positive sentiment was generated. Financial stocks too moved sharply higher with the KBW Bank Index and the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index spiking by 4.1% and 3.1%, respectively. Housing stocks too were substantially strong resulting in a 2.3% surge by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Computer hardware, semiconductor and software stocks also saw considerable strength, contributing to the strong upward move by the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Retail, steel and energy stocks too moved notably upwards on the day, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index edged down by 0.1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 0.3%. The major European markets moved upwards. While the German DAX Index surged by 1.5%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.2% and the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.7%.
In the bond market, treasuries moved sharply higher in reaction to the consumer price inflation data. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, plunged by 13.5 bps to 4.653%.
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