US stocks rise as investors turn focus to upcoming key December inflation report

• US stocks jumped on Wednesday as investors turn their attention to December's CPI report.
• The highly anticipated inflation report is set to be released Thursday morning with estimates of a 6.5% year-over-year rise.
• After the CPI report, investors will start to focus on fourth-quarter earnings which start Friday.

US stocks moved higher on Wednesday as investors turn their attention to the highly anticipated December CPI report, which is set to be released Thursday morning.

Consensus expects headline inflation to come in at 6.5% year-over-year, and for core inflation to be 5.7% year-over-year. On a month-over-month basis, headline and core inflation are expected to be -0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.

The December CPI report will inform investors as to whether the Federal Reserve needs to move forward with more aggressive interest rate hikes to tame inflation, or if the central bank can pull back as inflation is showing signs of steadily cooling off.

After the Thursday CPI report, investors will turn their attention to fourth-quarter earnings, which are set to kick off this Friday with the banks.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Wednesday:

• S&P 500: 3,932.69, up 0.34%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,812.92, up 0.32% (108.82 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 10,771.41, up 0.27%

Here's what else is happening this morning:

• The Wall Street trading playbook for Thursday's CPI report outlines the potential for a 3% surge or a 3% decline in stock prices depending on where the inflation numbers land.
• Crypto giant Binance has admitted that it hasn't always maintained the reserves needed to keep the price of its BUSD stablecoin fixed at $1, creating a shortfall of as much as $1 billion in backing for the token.
• Billionaire investor Jeff Gundlach said investors should be watching the bond market rather than the Federal Reserve if they're trying to gauge where US interest rates will stand at the end of 2023.
• Nikhil Wahi, the brother of a former Coinbase product manager, was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Tuesday in what prosecutors have called the first-ever insider trading case for cryptocurrency.

In commodities, bonds and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 2.24% to $76.80 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped 2.21% to $81.87.
• Gold jumped 0.25% to $1,881.20 per ounce.
• The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell four basis points to 3.58%.
• Bitcoin fell 0.17% to $17,383, while ether dropped 0.05% to $1,330.