By Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian
(Reuters) - The benchmark S&P 500 climbed above the 5,000 mark to hit a record high on Friday after data pointed to minimal revisions in last year's inflation figures, aiding expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year.
A string of positive earnings and optimism around artificial intelligence have pushed the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow to record levels this year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is about 2.3% away from its peak.
U.S. monthly consumer prices rose less than initially estimated in December, revised government data showed on Friday.
The consumer price index rose 0.2% in December instead of 0.3% as reported last month, annual revisions of the CPI data published by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. But data for November was revised up to show the CPI increasing 0.2% rather than 0.1% as previously estimated.
"I would say today's revisions are much more modest than they were last year," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth. "There's much less of an overarching concern in the marketplace about the actual data now that we know what the revised numbers look like."
Keeping a lid on gains, the yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes reversed their earlier drop and rose to 4.18%. [US/]
Strong economic data and hawkish comments from Fed policymakers in recent weeks have pushed back traders' bets that the U.S. central bank will start cutting interest rates in March.
Investors are now awaiting January consumer prices data, scheduled for release next week, for a clearer picture of where rates are headed this year.
At 9:44 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 20.24 points, or 0.05%, at 38,706.09, the S&P 500 was up 7.42 points, or 0.15%, at 5,005.33, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 53.27 points, or 0.34%, at 15,846.99.
The three main indexes were set for their fifth consecutive week of gains as upbeat earnings reports offset jitters around the interest-rate path and concerns about U.S. regional banks' exposure to commercial real estate.
The tech sector was up 0.4% and led sectoral gains, helped by a 1.5% rise in Nvidia after Reuters reported that the chipmaker is building a new business unit focused on designing bespoke chips for cloud computing firms and others, including advanced artificial intelligence processors.
PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) lost 3.4% after its fourth-quarter revenue fell short of estimates as multiple price hikes crimped demand for its juices and Lay's crisps.
Pinterest plunged 11.6% after it forecast first-quarter revenue largely below Wall Street estimates, while Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) rallied 20.1% as it forecast upbeat first-quarter revenue and profit.
With the U.S. earnings season past the halfway mark, more than 80% of the S&P 500 companies topped profit estimates in the fourth quarter, according to LSEG data. In a typical quarter, 67% of companies beat estimates.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.61-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.67-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 27 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 74 new highs and 19 new lows.