US STOCKS-Wall Street ticks higher after May inflation data

By Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

June 11 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes nudged higher on Wednesday, as a cooler-than-expected inflation report calmed concerns around tariff-driven price pressures and fanned expectations for interest rate cuts.

Data showed consumer prices increased only marginally in May, but inflation is expected to accelerate in the coming months due to the Trump administration's import tariffs.

Annually, headline inflation stood at 2.4%, lower than the 2.5% rise estimated by economists polled by Reuters.

"Longer term there's still concerns about Trump's tariffs being inflationary but this report was better than expected and it fuels hope that the Federal Reserve will be able to step in with rate cuts later on this year," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

Traders are pricing in 48 basis points of rate cuts by year-end, per data compiled by LSEG. They are penciling in a 57% chance of a 25 bps cut in September, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also traded near record levels, with the S&P 500 about 1.6% below all-time highs touched in February, and the Nasdaq about 2% below its record peaks reached in December.

A day after officials from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework to put their tariff truce back on track, President Donald Trump said the U.S. deal with China was done, with Beijing to supply magnets and rare earth minerals.

Investors are awaiting more details from the two-day meeting and hoping for a lasting resolution to the trade tensions that have disrupted global markets for much of the year.

The U.S. stock market has rallied in recent weeks, recovering from a slump in April sparked by Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs.

At 10:03 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 55.84 points, or 0.13%, to 42,922.71, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 6.13 points, or 0.10%, to 6,044.94 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 26.66 points, or 0.14%, to 19,742.60.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose, led by healthcare .SPXHC stocks with an about 0.4% rise. On the flip side, materials .SPLRCM fell 0.7%.

Among stocks, Tesla TSLA.O advanced 1.7% after CEO Elon Musk said he regrets some of the posts he made last week about Trump, following an abrupt rift that has roiled the electric-vehicle maker's shares.

Software development platform provider GitLab GTLB.O dropped 10.2% after reporting quarterly results.

Shares of videogame retailer GameStop GME.N fell 4.4% after it reported a decline in first-quarter revenue.

Summit Therapeutics SMMT.O was down 1.9% after brokerage Leerink Partners started coverage on the drug developer with an "underperform" rating.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.25-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.32-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 7 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 48 new highs and 19 new lows