us stock indexes headed toward their fourth straight day of gains on thursday afternoon with the sp 500 hovering around 4500 led by technology stocks after data showing june producerprice inflation slowed further bolstering the chances that the federal reserve is near the end of its campaign of interestrate hikes on wednesday the dow jones industrial average rose 86 points or 025 to 34347 the sp 500 increased 33 points or 074 to 4472 and the nasdaq composite gained 158 points or 115 to 13919 us stocks trade higher on thursday afternoon with the sp 500 and nasdaq composite trading at their highest levels since early april 2022 stocks extended their gains from earlier in the week as the latest batch of us economic data suggested that the federal reserve has managed to bring down inflation without provoking the surge in unemployment and economic downturn that many had feared the producerprice index ppi rose a meek 01 in june according to the bureau of labor statistics report economists surveyed by dow jones expected an increase of 02 core ppi which strips out volatile food and energy prices climbed 01 in line with expectations the june producer report came a day after the us consumerprice index for june rose a modest 02 and the rate of inflation slowed to the lowest level since 2021 the yearly rate of inflation decelerated to 3 from 4 in the prior month meanwhile a weekly accounting of the number of americans applying for jobless benefits declined by 12000 to 237000 indicating that the us labor market remains tight even as job growth is slowing the encouraging economic data have helped all three main us equity indexes reverse their losses from last week as investors bet that an end to the feds interesthiking cycle might be in sight while odds of a soft landing in which inflation returns to close to the feds 2 target without a recession are improving the us cpi data raises hopes that the federal reserve is going to be able to bring down inflation without steering the us economy into a recession said nigel green the ceo of the advisory and assetmanagement devere group cooling inflation and a strong and resilient labor market suggests that no recession will come in 2023 we believe the fed has pulled off the perfect soft landing borrowing costs also dipped further with the benchmark 10year treasury yield  which started the week near 41 now at 377 bond yields move inversely to prices the ice us dollar index  a gauge of the currencys value against its main rivals also declined slumping to its lowest level in more than a year thursday adding another tailwind to the stockmarket rally bokeh capital partners cio kim forrest agreed that both inflation and employment data may finally be responding to the feds interestrate hikes and quantitative tightening bolstering expectations that the fed might achieve its policy goals without provoking a surge in unemployment or a punishing recession it seems like things are moving in the right direction she said in an interview with marketwatch however james st aubin chief investment officer at sierra mutual funds said if investors are being myopic about inflation and not considering the job market they are probably missing the feds datadependent spectrum they the fed dont feel like the inflation fire is going to be completely extinguished if the job market continues to be strong st aubin told marketwatch on wednesday in that regard i think theyre going to be focused on the job openings and labor turnover survey  so theyre going to see job openings come down significantly before theyre completely comfortable with standing down outside the us there was also a broad riskon tone across global markets hong kongs hang seng index  whose currency peg with the us dollar makes it particularly sensitive to fed policy rose 25 on wednesday despite news that greater china exports fell in june by the most since the start of the covid19 pandemic extending the rally now likely depends on how the secondquarter corporate earnings season is received investors are already looking ahead to friday when big banks such as jpmorgan chase jpm citigroup c and wells fargo wfc will present their quarterly earnings figures overall sp 500 earnings are expected to fall by 64 according to refinitiv though much of this is because of large losses for energy companies this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal