Stocks climbed for a fourth session on Tuesday as Wall Street parsed through another round of inflation data in search for clues on when the Federal Reserve could start easing monetary policy.
The S&P 500 added 0.46% to close at 4,643.70, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 173.01 points, or 0.48%, to 36,577.94. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.70% to 14,533.40.
All three major indexes touched new intraday 52-week highs on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 hitting its highest intraday level since January 2022. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and Dow touched their highest intraday levels since April and January of last year, respectively.
The consumer price index rose 3.1% in November year over year and 0.1% month over month. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast a 3.1% annual increase. Month over month, they expected CPI to remain flat. Excluding food and energy, inflation rose in line with economists' expectations.
The report comes as investors try to end a strong year on a high note. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have six consecutive weeks of gains.
"Bulls and bears each have their talking points about the [November] consumer price index, but the fact of the matter was that the number was very consistent with expectations, and thus changes little," said Adam Crisafulli, founder and president of Vital Knowledge. "The consensus mindset seems eager for a buyable pullback (as underinvested people would like to deploy sidelined capital) which is likely why one doesn't seem to be happening."
Traders will now turn their attention to the Fed's policy announcement, slated for Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. Wall Street largely expect the central bank to hold rates steady. However, they will comb through Chair Jerome Powell's commentary for signals of when rate cuts could come.
Shares of tech giant Oracle were down more than 12% a day after the company's revenue for the fiscal second quarter missed Wall Street expectations. Macy's pulled back 8% following a downgrade to sell from Citi on Tuesday.