Wall Street Rises as Inflation Fears Ease; SK Hynix ADRs Surge 27%

U.S. stocks ended higher on July 14 as easing inflation concerns and a rally in artificial intelligence chip shares lifted all three major indexes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9.63 points, or 0.02%, to 52,508.27 at the New York Stock Exchange. The S&P 500 gained 28.25 points, or 0.38%, to 7,543.59, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 233.83 points, or 0.9%, to 26,107.01.

Investor sentiment improved after June consumer price data came in below expectations, easing concerns that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates.

The consumer price index rose 3.5% in June from a year earlier, slowing from 4.2% in May and coming in below the 3.8% estimate compiled by Dow Jones. On a monthly basis, the index fell 0.4%, steeper than the 0.2% decline economists had expected. It was the biggest month-on-month drop since April 2020, when prices fell 0.8% during the pandemic.

That helped ease market worries over inflation. CME FedWatch showed the probability of a rate increase at the Fed's July 28-29 policy meeting fell to 17% from 42% a day earlier. Even so, the odds of at least one rate hike this year remained high at about 80%.

Memory-chip stocks rebounded after tumbling a day earlier. SK Hynix American depositary receipts jumped 27.29% on their third trading day after listing as perceptions spread that the shares were undervalued. The gain sent the stock to its highest level since its July 10 debut.

Other semiconductor shares also rallied. Nvidia rose 4.06%, Micron gained 4.92%, SanDisk climbed 5.01%, Intel added 4.50% and AMD advanced 2.57%.

Major U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs kicked off the second-quarter earnings season with results that beat expectations. Goldman Sachs surged 9.0% on strong trading and investment-banking performance. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.5% and Bank of America gained 1.88%. Citigroup fell 5.29% despite solid earnings after news of job cuts.

Go Jeong-sam, Hankyung.com reporter, jsk@hankyung.com