The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed at 604.57 Thursday, up 0.8%.
Citi analyst Christopher Danely raised his price target on Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) to $175 from $150 with a buy rating this morning.
Daneley expects higher DRAM and NAND sales and pricing to benefit Micron in fiscal 2026, even if fiscal Q4 2025 earnings, due out in two weeks, are only “in line” with analyst estimates.
Micron stock is up 10.6% on the news.
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria upgraded Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) to buy this morning with a $210 price target.
“We believe the growth in AI compute demand will drive enough demand to sustain NVDA’s growth into next year and likely beyond,” argues the analyst.
Nvidia stock is flat this morning, but the Voo is now up 0.5%.
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This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a surprise decline in wholesale inflation, represented by the producer price index (PPI), yesterday, boosting the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO). This morning, we got the complementary set of inflation numbers — the consumer price index (CPI).
Unfortunately for the economy, the news here isn’t as good.
The CPI rose 0.4% in August, faster inflation than the 0.3% increase that economists had projected. Annualized, the inflation rate right now is 2.9%, which is more than the 2% annual inflation rate that the Federal Reserve targets — although it’s not worse than the 2.9% rate that economists were predicting.
So-called “core” CPI inflation, which excludes changes in food and energy prices, was 3.1%, up 0.3%.
The Labor Department also had news for us today on the employment front. For the week ending September 6, unemployment compensation filings increased by 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 263,000. As with the inflation number, this was higher than economists had forecast (235,000).
Taken in tandem, worse inflation poses a problem for the Federal Reserve’s presumed plan to lower interest rates next week (because lower interest rates can accelerate inflation even more — not the result the Fed wants to see). On the other hand, if the jobs picture is getting worse, then the Fed may still want to cut interest rates to goose the economy higher.
On balance, we’re probably still on course for a rate cut next week — but only a small one: 25 basis points.
In earnings news today, S&P 500 component company Kroger (NYSE: KR | KR Price Prediction) beat analyst forecasts by a nickel, reporting it earned $1.04 per share in Q2. Sales were a bit weaker than expected at $33.9 billion, however.
Kroger stock is up 1.5% premarket.
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Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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