U.S. Stocks Advanced After Inflation Report Stoked Rate Cut Speculation

Barry Adams
24 Oct, 2025
San Francisco

Stocks on Wall Street powered ahead, and investors reviewed another batch of earnings releases. 

The S&P 500 index increased 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.5% as traders reviewed the shutdown-delayed inflation data for September. 

Stocks advanced after the release of the inflation report, as a slight easing in inflation stoked speculation that the Federal Reserve is more likely to cut rates at the end of October. 

The consumer price index increased 3.0%, and the core rate of inflation eased to 3.0% from 3.1% from a year ago, respectively.  

Consumer inflation accelerated from 2.9% in August and jumped to the highest since January. 

On a monthly basis, overall inflation advanced 0.4% and core inflation rose 0.3%, according to the nine-day delayed report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The index for gasoline rose 4.1% in September and was the largest factor in the all-items monthly increase, as the index for energy rose 1.5% over the month. 

The food index increased 0.2% over the month as the food at home index rose 0.3% and the food away from home index increased 0.1%.

Most U.S. government economic reports are suspended, because most workers at various government agencies, including the BLS, since the start of the month. 

Trump administration's tariffs continued to put upward pressure on the price of imported goods, used cars and rucks, and food.   

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

Intel Corp. jumped 7.4% to $41.15, and the advanced semiconductor company's third-quarter results surpassed market expectations. 

Revenue increased 3% to $13.7 billion, net income swung to a profit of $4.4 billion from a loss of $16.1 billion, and diluted earnings per share were 90 cents of profit compared to a loss of $3.88 a year ago. 

In the quarter, Intel received $5.7 billion from the U.S. government, and the Trump administration has committed a total of $8.9 billion in funding. 

In addition, NVIDIA agreed to invest $5 billion in Intel common stock, and Japan-based SoftBank Group acquired $2 billion of the company's stock. 

Intel guided fourth-quarter revenue between $12.8 billion and $13.8 billion and a diluted loss per share of 14 cents.

Alphabet Inc. Class C increased 1.3% to $256.93 after the company announced a multi-billion dollar cloud partnership with AI services provider Anthropic. 

Anthropic has attracted $3 billion in investment from Google's parent, and Amazon.com has invested about $8 billion and provided its Trainium 2 chips for its custom-built supercomputer for Claude Code, the company's agentic coding assistant. 

Target Corp. increased 0.6% to $256.93, and the discount retailer said it plans to cut about 8% of its corporate workforce, or 1,800 positions.

The news was first reported by CNBC, and the financial news provider cited an internal memo sent by the incoming CEO, Michael Fiddleke, to corporate employees.

Ford Motor Company jumped 4.4% to $12.89, and the vehicle maker's third-quarter results surpassed market expectations. 

Revenue increased 9% to $50.5 billion from $46.2 billion, net income surged to $2.4 billion from $0.9 billion, and diluted earnings per share advanced to 60 cents from 22 cents a year ago. 

Ford said it absorbed $700 million of tariff-related expenses, and adjusted free cash flow was $4.3 billion. 

The company declared a cash dividend of 15 cents per share, payable on December 1 to shareholders on record on November 7. 

The company lowered its 2025 adjusted EBIT outlook to between $6.0 billion and $6.5 billion, reflecting $1.0 billion in net tariff-related expenses and an additional headwind of up to $1.0 billion related to a fire at the Oswego, New York-based aluminum supplier, Novelis. 

"We are working intensively with Novelis and others to source aluminum that can be processed in the cold rolling section of the plant that remains operational while also working to restore overall plant production," said Ford's president and CEO Jim Farley. 

"We have made substantial progress in a short time to minimize the impact in 2025 and recover production in 2026," added Farley.