U.S. stocks are rising as fear of higher rates fades

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were rising on Monday as investors raised their hopes for a slower pace of interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve.

At 11:19 ET (16:19 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 277 points or 0.8%, while the S&P 500 was up 1.3%, and the NASDAQ Composite was up 2.1%.

A cooling labor market is boosting hopes for a slower rate hike pace, though officials from the Fed have made it clear they intend to keep rates elevated this year in a bid to tame inflation.

Stocks, particularly in the growth sector, have been weighed by fears about interest rate increases since last year, but Friday's data on jobs helped snap a recent losing streak.

Next up this week is the December report on inflation, with analysts expecting the data to show moderation on prices compared to the same time one year ago. The market is now expecting the Fed to raise interest rates by a slower pace next month, with a quarter-percentage point raise compared with the half-point raise in December and bigger increases at the four meetings before that.

This week will also feature data on weekly unemployment claims and consumer sentiment, a reading that will come out on the same day big banks kick off fourth quarter earnings season.

Shares of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. ADR (NYSE:BABA) rose 4% after Ant Group (HK:6688) founder Jack Ma said he would give up control of the fintech.

CinCor Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:CINC) shares jumped 138% after it agreed to be bought by AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) for about $1.8 billion.

Shares of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) rose 2.2% as the Wall Street bank reportedly prepares to lay off more than 3,000 people amid a slump in deal-making and an overhaul of its consumer banking offering.

Oil rose. Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 2.1% to $75.31 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures crude rose 1.8% to $79.98 a barrel. Gold Futures was up 0.6% to $1880.