news/GOOGL/2023.02.13/Wall Street rallies as investors eye inflation data.txt

(Updates at mid-day with stock moves, investor comment)*Meta climbs after report of more layoffs*Fidelity National slumps on payments business spinoff*Indexes: S&P 500 +1.05%, Nasdaq +1.48%, Dow +0.99%Feb 13 (Reuters) -Wall Street rallied on Monday as investors awaited inflation
data likely to hint at the path of the Federal Reserve's future
interest rate hikes, while Meta Platforms gained after a report
said the Facebook parent was planning fresh layoffs.Microsoft and Nvidia climbed more
than 3%, while Apple and Amazon were each up
more than 1%. Those four tech-related heavyweights contributed
more than any other stocks to the S&P 500's gains for the
session.Helping lift Microsoft, Stifel raised its price target
on the software company and said it is clearly looking to upend
Alphabet's Google search dominance through its integration with
ChatGPT.Investors are laser-focused on January inflation data
due on Tuesday to reassess their bets on the central bank's
monetary policy path.Wall Street's main indexes lost ground last week after
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellwarnedthat interest rates may need to move higher than expected
in the central bank's battle against inflation."Today is just a natural reaction in the opposite
direction after we've seen very heavy selling pressure," said
Keith Buchanan, said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at
GLOBALT Investments in Atlanta.Meta rose more than 3% after the Financial Times
reported on Sunday that the company was preparing to announce a
new round of job cuts, adding to layoffs last November.Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, 10 rose, led by
information technology, up 1.86%, followed by a 1.43%
gain in consumer discretionary. The energy index
dipped 0.3%.In afternoon trading, the S&P 500 was up 1.05% at
4,133.27 points.The Nasdaq gained 1.48% to 11,891.06 points, while the
Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.99% at 34,205.73 points.Fidelity National Information Services Inc plunged
almost 14% following the banking and payments processing
conglomerate's decision to spin off its merchant payments
business.As U.S. quarterly earnings reports wind down, 69% of the S&P
500 firms that have reported results so far have exceeded profit
expectations, according to Refinitiv data on Friday. Analysts
expect fourth-quarter earnings to fall nearly 3% from a year
earlier.Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P
500 by a 7.5-to-one ratio.The S&P 500 posted four new highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq recorded 60 new highs and 50 new lows.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju
Samuel, Sriraj Kalluvila, Shinjini Ganguli and Deepa Babington)