Stocks Climb as Soft-Landing Chorus Grows Louder: Markets Wrap
- US GDP increased 3.3% last quarter, capping a strong year
- Lagarde’s talk of mid-2024 ECB cut sees traders bet on April
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Wall Street traders pushed stocks to another all-time high on speculation the Federal Reserve will be able to engineer a soft landing as the US economy remains fairly resilient and inflation shows signs of cooling.
Equities notched their sixth straight day of gains as the latest economic data defied forecasts for a recession, bolstering the outlook for Corporate America. While such strength implies policymakers would be in no rush to cut rates, a closely watched measure of underlying inflation coming in line with the Fed’s 2% target was seen by many as an encouraging signal.