Stocks rise broadly on Wall Street with more help from tech

NEW YORK — Stocks rose broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Wednesday, putting the market further into the green for the week after a solid gain a day earlier.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% as of 1:27 p.m. Eastern. More than 85% of stocks in the benchmark index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 258 points, or 0.7%, to 35,721 and the Nasdaq rose 1.7%.

Technology and communications stocks were among the biggest gainers. Microsoft rose 1.3% and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, rose 1%.

Companies that rely on spending by consumers, including retailers and travel-related businesses, also rose. Home Depot climbed 1.1% and MGM added 2%.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.92% from 1.95% late Tuesday. It’s still the highest it’s been since before the pandemic began.

Investors are busy reviewing the latest corporate earnings as they try to determine how different industries are dealing with persistent supply chain problems. That is one of the factors pushing inflation higher and making operations more costly for companies while making products more expensive for consumers.

Chipotle Mexican Grill rose 9.6% after beating analyst’s fourth-quarter earnings and revenue forecasts. The company raised menu prices 4% in December as it faced higher costs for beef and labor.

“Overall, companies have found that increasing prices have been more acceptable to their customers than in the past,” said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Wall Street will get another update Thursday on rising prices when the Labor Department releases its report on inflation for January. Economists are forecasting the report to show inflation rose to a four-decade high of 7.3%.

An unexpectedly smaller rise in prices could be seen as a signal that inflation might be easing and could support markets, though a bigger increase could weigh on stocks.

“People are trying to get in position to where they want to be before this number is released tomorrow,” Wren said.

Persistently rising inflation could increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to speed up plans to raise interest rates in order to fight inflation.

Investors expect the Fed to raise rates at least four times this year, starting next month. They remain concerned that the Fed may need to raise rates more often than that if inflation pressure remains high. As a result, markets have become more volatile as investors shift money around to prepare for an investing environment with higher interest rates following an extended period of ultra-low interest rate policy throughout the pandemic.

Wall Street mostly cheered the latest round of corporate report cards on Wednesday. Taco Bell owner Yum Brands rose 2.9% after reporting strong fourth-quarter revenue. Freight transportation company XPO Logistics rose 7.9% after also reporting solid financial results.

Drugstore chain CVS fell 5.1% after giving investors a discouraging earnings forecast.

Disney reports its latest results after the closing bell. Twitter and Coca-Cola report their results on Thursday.