New York, June 10, 2026, 11:01 a.m. ET
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq traded flat late Wednesday morning after dipping on the open. The Dow remained down.
- May inflation was up 4.2% year-on-year, the quickest since April 2023. The numbers mostly came in as expected.
- Investors face two active concerns right now: oil-fueled inflation and another possible AI-linked tech stock pullback.
Stocks steadied on Wall Street in choppy trading Wednesday after falling at the open. The S&P 500 hovered near flat at 7,387.61. The Nasdaq Composite was just above water at 25,684.83. The Dow slid 279.92 points, or 0.55%, to 50,592.19, per LSEG data via Reuters. Investors are tracking moves because a hotter inflation print didn’t rattle the market outright, but it also kept Fed policy questions open.
Consumer prices continued rising, with the Consumer Price Index up 0.5% in May and 4.2% from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. That’s an acceleration from April’s 3.8%. Energy made up over 60% of the increase for the month, putting oil markets and Middle East news in focus for stocks.
The mood had shifted from Tuesday, when the S&P 500 dropped 0.26% and the Nasdaq slid 0.97% as tech names lost steam. This time, the market isn’t celebrating the CPI print. Instead, it’s reading the data as bad, but at least not worse than traders had braced for. Reuters said economists in its survey were looking for a 4.2% yearly CPI rise and a 0.5% move for the month.
Core CPI was up 0.2% in May and 2.9% on the year, excluding food and energy costs. That was in focus for investors looking for signs that higher gas and fuel prices are pushing into other sectors. New car prices, home furnishings, and auto insurance fell during the month. Shelter, airline tickets, and medical care saw price gains.
Bond yields edged lower and stocks found some relief. The 2-year Treasury yield slid to 4.11% and the 10-year stayed close to 4.52% after the CPI print, Reuters reported, with the dollar index down 0.2%. Softer yields often support stocks by easing the discount rate on future earnings.
AI names stayed under pressure. Nvidia, Broadcom and Micron traded down in the morning, and the S&P 500 tech sector dropped 1.1%, according to Reuters. Super Micro Computer stood out as shares sank after the company laid out a $7 billion equity and equity-linked financing plan to buy AI server parts.
Super Micro late Tuesday set plans for $5 billion in underwritten public offerings and another $2 billion from an at-the-market program, allowing the company to drip shares into the market. Proceeds, Super Micro said, would go toward filling roughly $39 billion in new AI server orders from over 20 customers. The hitch for investors is dilution. More shares means less earnings per existing share.
Energy names moved the other way. Reuters reported six of the S&P 500’s 11 main sectors traded higher, with energy out front as oil gained more than 1%. Charles Schwab’s market note had WTI crude at $89.46, up 1.41%. The Cboe Volatility Index, or Wall Street’s fear gauge, rose 4.88% to 20.84 as it tracked S&P 500 swings.
Inflation numbers for May have shifted talk from how high the reading was to how the Fed reacts next. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, told Reuters the data was “in-line with expectations” though he said it’s “still moving in the wrong direction.” Reuters said investors expect at least one more 25-basis-point rate hike by year-end—a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Reuters
Fed sticks to its policy path, holding rates at 3.5% to 3.75% at its April meeting. The FOMC cited still-high inflation, pointing to global energy prices as a factor. Investors got no signal for a near-term cut. The next Fed meeting is set for June 16–17, which will also bring new economic forecasts.
High energy prices could last, putting pressure on wages and other costs beyond gasoline and transport. That could eat into profit margins, hold Treasury yields up, and hit pricey tech stocks harder. Still, core CPI eased to 0.2% for the month. If oil settles down before the next Fed meeting, policymakers might not need to sound tougher.
The next move doesn’t hinge just on today’s close. Investors want to see if the Iran-linked oil shock cools ahead of the Fed’s June 16–17 meeting, since what the Fed says about potential future hikes could shape whether the current pullback remains a rotation out of AI winners or becomes a wider market reset.
