Market Highlights

Wall Street got a degree of relief as relatively tame inflation data spurred bigger bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts, with bond yields falling. While most stocks gained, weakness in tech giants kept a lid on the market. Treasury two-year yields dropped to their lowest level since 2022 as traders priced in higher chances the Fed will slash rates more than twice this year. About 370 shares in the S&P 500 rose, but the gauge closed little changed at the end of its worst week since November. A gauge of megacaps lost 1.1%. Amazon.com Inc. saw its longest slide in almost 20 years. The Russell 2000 index of small firms climbed 1.2%. Bitcoin jumped. The consumer price index rose 0.2% in January, the smallest gain since July and restrained by lower energy costs. While services costs picked up last month, prices of core goods remained stable. The core CPI rose from a year ago by the least since 2021. The overall gauge also eased on an annual basis.