Wall Street holds steady ahead of key inflation reading

This week, the major US stock indices showed a slight gain after having only seen losses. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrials, a measure of the top US stocks, remained unchanged at 51,377 points. The S&P 500, which tracks the performance of 500 large US companies, rose by 0.6% to 7,716 points. The Nasdaq, focused on high-tech and growth-oriented companies, gained 0.9% to reach 27,050 points.

The Nasdaq 100, which represents 100 of the largest non-financial companies by market capitalization, increased by 0.7% to 30,556 points. Trading volume was high on Wednesday with the release of two key economic indicators. The first was the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, which reports on private sector consumption spending.

The second release was the private sector employment report from September. Over the rest of the week, six Federal Reserve officials will comment on the situation, followed by Friday's government data on the US labor market, which will include job creation in the public sector. Overall, the economic indicators paint a mixed picture.

The PCE price index held steady at 3.4% in August, the same as in the two previous months. Economists had initially expected a rise in the index, which is the preferred inflation measure used by the Federal Reserve. Unlike the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is the official US measure of inflation, the PCE includes expenditures not directly paid by households, such as employer-provided health insurance.