Entertainment stocks rallied with the broader markets Tuesday after data showed inflation slowing down for the fifth straight month.
Consumer prices rose 7.1% in November from a year ago, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. That was down from 7.7% in October and a peak of 9.1% in June.
It was the fifth straight monthly report to show that the four-decade high inflation is slowing down, and follows reports from late last week that gas prices have returned to the level seen a year ago.
While the government does not track the cost of entertainment in the basket of goods it tracks to produce the consumer price index, a tighter economy spells trouble for companies that do not produce essential goods, like groceries, which are still getting more expensive. Food prices rose 12% from a year ago, the report said. Housing costs also continued moving higher, though reports that track home and rental prices in real time indicate they are starting to drop, The Associated Press reported.
Still, economists see the overall slowdown as a sign that things are improving, even though inflation is much higher than the 2% the Fed aims for.
The positive report send stocks soaring, despite expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again on Wednesday for the seventh time this year, which will make loans from mortgages to credit cards more expensive.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped over 425 points, or 1.3%, to 34,430. The S&P 500 gained over 2% to 4.07 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index added 2.9% to 11,469.
Entertainment-linked tech stocks helped drive the gains. Apple shares added 3.5% to $149.56. Amazon shot up 5.3% to $95.37. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms leaped 7.1% to $122.88. YouTube parent Alphabet gained 5.6% to $121.11.
Streaming giant Netflix gained 4.8% to $330.31, while The Walt Disney Company, which owns its namesake streaming service, 66% of Hulu and the ABC and ESPN networks, gained 2% to $96.58. HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery gained 2.3% to $11.53. Fox Corp., parent of Fox News and the Fox TV network, rose 2.5% to $30.40.
Paramount Global, parent of CBS, added 4.1% to $23.13. NBCUniversal parent Comcast rose 3% to $37.53. AMC Networks added 3.8% to $19.41.
Stocks favored by day traders saw some of the biggest gains, as is typical. Roku shotup 10% to $56.75. Lions Gate Entertainment added 8.9% to $6.44.
