Wall Street continued its advance after Tuesday’s bounce following the Fed’s rate cut announcement.
In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.69 percent to 13,833.76 while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.84 percent to 2,673.9 and the S&P 500 gained 0.83 percent to 1,532.36.
The Russell 2000 of small and mid-caps was 1.63 percent higher to 819.74.
The Labor Department said that the consumer price index was down 0.1 percent in August, while the core CPI was up 0.2 percent.
Neither figure was a surprise to analysts.
In a separate report, the Commerce Department reported new home construction down 2.6 percent in August, the third month in a row of declines.
Despite the drop in the building of new homes, D. R Horton (NSYE: DHI) added 44 cents to $15.74 and Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) gained 58 cents to $17.68, helped by the rate cut.
The Fed’s decision also aided mortgage lenders.
Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) was up 95 cents to $20.83, also helped by a positive forecast from the lender’s CEO.
Commodities-related shares were higher as investors assumed that demand would rise following the interest rate cut.
Southern Copper Corp (NYSE: PCU) added 19 cents to $114.72, while Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) was $1.17 higher to $56.45.
Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was $1.85 higher to $105.15, Unites States Steel (NYSE: X) gained $3.20 to $100.95, and US-traded shares of Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) jumped $3.62 to $313.42.