By Sinéad Carew and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) -All three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher on Wednesday with a boost from the technology sector offsetting investor disappointment at an early morning inflation report, which crushed hopes the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates by 50 basis points next week.
The S&P 500 technology index finished up 3.3% after opening lower with a big boost from AI chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), which added 8%. It was helped by a Semafor report that the U.S. government is considering letting Nvidia export advanced chips to Saudi Arabia.
Political developments also drove market sentiment the day after Democrat candidate Kamala Harris put her Republican rival Donald Trump on the defensive in a combative U.S. presidential debate.
Earlier, the Labor Department reported the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2% last month, in line with July. Core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy components, rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, exceeding economist expectations for a 0.2% rise.
Traders changed their bets to a 85% probability for a 25 basis points cut by the Fed from 66% on Tuesday and the probability of a 50 basis point cut fell to 15% from 34% a day ago, according to CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch tool.
"Maybe the market was looking for a softer inflation print which would give the Fed more reason to cut by 50 basis points next week." said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager, at Natixis. "This report was in-line to slightly hotter than expectations. As a result, this puts a bit of pressure on the Fed to cut by only 25 basis points."
As the day wore on investors may have come to terms with the inflation numbers, according to Janasiewicz who also pointed to technology as the stand out "which has helped prop up the broader market."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 124.75 points, or 0.31%, to 40,861.71, the S&P 500 gained 58.61 points, or 1.07%, to 5,554.13 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 369.65 points, or 2.17%, to 17,395.53.
Six of the S&P 500's 11 major sectors advanced on the day with consumer discretionary the second biggest gainer, up 1.3%. Among the sector laggards, energy lost 0.93% followed closely by consumer staples, down 0.88%.
The S&P 500 financial index pared losses to close down just 0.39%. At its session low, it was down more than 2%.
Its biggest gainer was American Express (NYSE:AXP), whose financial chief told a conference that credit was strong and consumer spending stable.
Some big U.S. lenders also advanced, rebounding from early tumbles. Goldman Sachs closed up 0.9% while JPMorgan added 0.8%. The sector was hit Tuesday by warnings of a dip in trading revenue, a slower-than-anticipated recovery in investment banking and an expected hit to interest income from looming rate cuts.
After the Presidential debate and with eight weeks left until the election, contracts for a Harris victory are trading at 57 cents, with a potential $1 payout, up from 53 cents before the debate, on the PredictIt politics betting platform. Trump contracts are trading at 48 cents versus 52 cents beforehand.
As a result, stocks expected to perform well under a Trump presidency fell, with cryptocurrency and blockchain-related shares and prison operators lower. Trump Media & Technology Group shares slumped 10.5%.
Meanwhile, solar stocks, seen as benefiting from a Harris administration, rallied. First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) added 15.2% while Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) rose 11.3% and SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) advanced 8.5%.
While the debate offered Wall Street little clarity on key policy issues, some market watchers see Harris' proposals to raise the corporate tax rate as likely to hit company profits, while Trump's tougher stance on tariffs could stoke inflation.
GameStop (NYSE:GME) shares fell almost 12% after the videogame retailer said it had filed for an offering of up to 20 million shares and reported lower second-quarter revenue.
Shares of lithium miners jumped after Chinese battery giant CATL said it plans to make adjustments to lithium carbonate production in Yichun. Albemarle (NYSE:ALB), one of the largest lithium miners in the world, jumped 13.6%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.4-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 342 new highs and 130 new lows.
On the Nasdaq, 2,337 stocks rose and 1,882 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.24-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 21 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 48 new highs and 129 new lows.
On U.S. exchanges 12.19 billion shares changed hands compared with the 10.80 billion 20 day moving average.