US stocks advance on PPI miss, bank earnings boost; S&P 500 nears record highs

The dollar fell; gold edged up; bitcoin gained; U.S. crude rose more than 1%.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell to about 4.55%.

S&P 500 sectors ended mixed with five up, five down, and one unchanged. Communication Services .SPLRCL, up more than 2.5%, led gainers. Utilities .SPLRCU, off 1%, was the weakest group.

Mag 7 .MAGS.K stocks, regional .KRX and big banks .SPXBK, as well as software & services .SPLRCIS were among outperformers.

Chip stocks .SOX as a group, even as ASML ASML.AS, ASML.O raised its 2026 revenue and gross margin outlook and increased long-term EUV production capacity targets, were on the weak side. The SOX lost more than 2%.

Of note, the SPXBK and the S&P 500 financial sector .SPSY both scored record closing highs. Quality QUAL.P and Apple AAPL.O also notched record finishes.

The S&P 500 index ended at 7,572.40, putting it down just 0.49% from its 7,609.78 June 2 record closing high and down around 0.64% from its 7,620.90 June 2 record intraday peak.

Wall Street stocks gained ground on Wednesday as softening inflation data and a robust beginning of second-quarter earnings season put investors in a buying mood.

The Labor Department's Producer Price Index (PPI) report provided a second straight day of cooler-than-expected inflation data, easing near-term pressure on the central bank to raise its key interest rate. With this, a second day of robust bank earnings added momentum to an auspicious beginning to second-quarter reporting season.

That said, in the end, it was a choppy and somewhat muted session. The S&P 500 gapped up at the open, rallied as much as 0.5% into a first-hour high, then turned negative on the day. It then firmed to end up about 0.4% on the day.