us stocks struggled to hold onto earlier gains on monday as investors evaluated a mixed batch of views from federal reserve officials and questioned whether octobers coolerthanexpected inflation data might be the start of easing price pressures stocks rose sharply late last week with the nasdaq composite advancing 94 in two days to cement its biggest weekly advance since at least march while the sp 500 clinched its best such performance since june stocks lost upward momentum on monday as investors appeared to give up on the idea that last weeks rally inspired by softerthananticipated october inflation data might still have some more room to run signs of cooling inflation in thursdays consumer prices data had bolstered hopes that the federal reserve may not need to continue raising borrowing costs at such an aggressive pace the feds no 2 official lael brainard seemed to confirm as much by telling bloomberg in an interview that it may be appropriate soon for policy makers to slow down their current pace of rate hikes we have to take a look at what the market has done over the last couple of weeks said edward moya senior market analyst for the americas at oanda corp equities have clearly stabilized and its all because of expectations that the fed is about to end its tightening cycle after february now we are at a weird stage where investors need to see inflation soften which means you are not going to see strong positioning until we get the next inflation report moya said via phone thats going to make it a choppy environment for stocks until theres further clarity if the fed is done with raising rates or will have to continue officials need to see labormarket weakness and we are finally getting signs of that too jim reid head of thematic research at deutsche bank dbkxe and others point out in a note to clients that the inflation report wasnt the only factor that helped set up stocks and other risksensitive assets for a rebound earlier in the day impressive levels of european gas storage due to the weather very short positioning in us equities midterms being out the way positive seasonals less event risk in the russianukraine war and now softer us inflation than expected are all helping reid said some of the worsthit technology stocks rallied as investors welcomed signs that they may be reining in their profligate spending meta platforms meta for example was up 2 as it cuts its staff count government bond markets resumed trading on monday after being closed friday for the veterans day holiday with the yield on the 10year note up 6 basis points at 387 over the weekend fed gov christopher waller said financial markets seem to have overreacted to the softerthanexpected october consumer price inflation data last week and that weve got a ways to go last weeks euphoria has failed to follow through into this week inflationdatainspired optimism that the fed could be less aggressive hiking rates was met with a reality check from a slew of fed speakers today who reminded the market that the battle against inflation was far from over said fiona cincotta senior market analyst for city index in londonthe reality is that one cooler core inflation print by no means constitutes a new trend patience is needed for further confirmation that core prices are falling on an ongoing basis cincotta wrote in an email to marketwatch with octobers producerprice index out on tuesday inflation is likely to remain a hot topic over the coming days see stockmarket rally despite ftx blowup facebookparents layoffs says investors may be whistling past recessions graveyard