Japan PPI inflation slips to 11-mth low in July
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* Alphabet rallies after results
* Volatility index eases
(Updates to close)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
Feb 3 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended higher on Wednesday,
registering a third straight session of gains, with Alphabet
Inc's shares jumping following its strong quarterly results.
Alphabet GOOGL.O shares rose a day after its results, as
it benefited from lockdowns that drove retail and other
advertisers online. S&P 500 companies are on track to post earnings growth for
the fourth quarter of 2020, data from Refinitiv showed on
Wednesday, which would defy expectations for profits to drop 10%
due to the pandemic. The Cboe Volatility index .VIX eased, and wild swings in
stock prices of GameStop GME.N and other social media
favorites subsided following a recent trading frenzy.
"The broad tape continues to be strong," said Michael
O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford,
Connecticut.
The recent retail trading activity is likely "to be here for
a while," said O'Rourke. "I don't know if it's going to be here
with the same intensity ... It's hard to maintain that type of
intensity. What we'll probably see are coordinated movements in
individual names by that crowd."
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O shares eased as Jeff Bezos' surprise
move to step down as chief executive quashed optimism about
bumper quarterly results. However, analysts were upbeat on the
promotion of its cloud computing head to the top job.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
35.13 points, or 0.11%, to 30,722.61, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
3.77 points, or 0.10%, to 3,830.08 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 2.23 points, or 0.02%, to 13,610.54.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is calling a meeting
this week of top officials, including from the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, to discuss
market volatility driven by retail trading in shares of
GameStop, silver and other stocks favored on social media.
L1N2K906E
The SEC is reviewing social media posts for signs of
potential fraud behind the recent trade frenzy in shares of
GameStop and other companies, according to a Bloomberg News
report, citing people familiar with the matter. U.S. President Joe Biden told congressional Democrats he
would not back down on including $1,400 checks for struggling
Americans in his COVID-19 relief plan but would consider tighter
limits on who gets them, lawmakers and aides said. On the economic front, the ADP Report showed hiring by U.S.
private employers rebounded by 174,000 in January after a drop
in December. A more comprehensive jobs report is expected on
Friday. A separate ISM survey showed U.S. services industry activity
raced to its highest level in nearly two years in January.