Macy's Jumps 19.4% Amid Reports of Buyout Offer

Stocks rise ahead of Fed's final meeting of the year
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 11, 2023 3:38 PM CST
Stocks Rise Ahead of Fed's Final Meeting of the Year
A traffic officer directs traffic next to Macy's flagship department store and its giant billboard in Herald Square in New York.   (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting of the year.

  • The S&P 500 rose 18.07 points, or 0.4%, to 4,622.44 on Monday.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 157.06 points, or 0.4%, to 36,404.93.
  • The Nasdaq composite rose 28.51 points, or 0.2%, to 14,432.49.
Macy's soared 19.4% following reports that an investor group is launching a bid to take the storied retailer private for $5.8 billion. Markets will get updates this week on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels before the Fed's meeting wraps up on Wednesday. Major stock indexes are on a six-week winning streak, with the S&P 500 up 20% for the year.

Wall Street's big focus this week will be updates on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels, along with the Fed's latest update on its interest rate policy. On Tuesday, the government will release its November report on consumer inflation. Analysts expect the report to show that inflation continued slowing to 3.1% from 3.2% in October, the AP reports. On Wednesday, the government will release its November report on inflation at the wholesale level, which is also expected to show that the rate of inflation is easing.

The inflation data comes ahead of the Fed's latest statement on interest rates Wednesday afternoon. The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark rate steady for a third consecutive time after spending much of 2022 and a large portion of 2023 aggressively raising rates to their highest levels in two decades. Wall Street is overwhelmingly betting that the Fed will keep its benchmark interest rate at a range of 5.25% to 5.50% into early 2024 and could start cutting rates by the middle of the year.

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Analysts are also becoming more comfortable with the possibility that the central bank can pull off a "soft landing" for its policy, which refers to interest rates easing under high interest rates without the economy slowing into a recession. "With inflation coming down faster than expected, it now appears likely that the Fed will refrain from additional rate hikes," said Brian Rose, senior US economist at UBS, in a note to investors. "At the same time, inflation is still too high and the labor market is still too tight for the Fed to consider cutting rates soon."

(More stock market stories.)

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