US stocks rise ahead of key inflation numbers and Federal Reserve meeting

Wall Street shares rose Monday as investors awaited the release of key US inflation numbers that are likely to influence Federal Reserve policymakers as they set interest rates this week.

Wall Street’s S&P 500 index rose 0.3 percent, continuing last week’s move into bull market territory, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.2 percent.

Stocks were supported by bets that the Federal Reserve will resist raising interest rates when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, marking the first pause in the central bank’s 14-month campaign to curb inflation.

“With signs of the economy sliding into a possible recession, it is expected that[Fed policymakers]will likely leave rates unchanged,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

The latest US consumer price index will be published on Tuesday. Inflation is expected to slow to 4.1 percent year on year in May, according to economists polled by Reuters.

The reading would mark a significant improvement from April’s 4.9 percent rate, following a March rate of 5 percent, and give the Fed more room to pause.

“Any deviation from the predicted path is likely to cause a shock of volatility in the markets,” Streeter said.

On the eastern side of the Atlantic, economists are still convinced that the European Central Bank will raise its deposit rate by another quarter of a percentage point on Thursday.

Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 rose 0.3 percent, while France’s Cac 40 gained 0.6 percent and Germany’s Dax 0.8 percent.

The London FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent, but was held back by a 0.8 percent fall in the vital energy sector. Shares of UK-listed BP and Shell both lost about 1 percent.

The moves came as oil prices fell Monday after Goldman Sachs revised its year-end price estimate for Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, from $95 to $86, following two previous downward revisions in the past six months.

Investor concerns about demand for the fuel intensified in the wake of lukewarm data on Chinese exports and producer price deflation, pointing to weak demand both outside and within the world’s second-largest economy.

Brent was down 2.5 percent to $72.93, while the US marker West Texas Intermediate fell 3 percent to $68.03.

Asian equities rose, with China’s CSI 300 up 0.2 percent, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng index added 0.1 percent and Japan’s Topix rose 0.7 percent.