U.S. stocks were edging up Tuesday afternoon ahead of Thursday’s December consumer price inflation data and ahead of the kick off of the corporate earnings reporting season later this week. How stocks are trading
The S&P 500
SPX,
+0.36%
is up 18 points, or 0.2%, to 3,910
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.24%
gained 119 points, or 0.3%, to 33,620
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+4.46%
advanced 75 points, or 0.7%, to 10,711
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.24%
fell 113 points, or 0.34%, to 33518, the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.36%
declined 3 points, or 0.08%, to 3892, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+4.46%
gained 66 points, or 0.63%, to 10636.
What’s driving markets Investor sentiment continues to be dominated by expectations of tighter Federal Reserve monetary policy, but if traders were hoping for more clues about what’s next for a key interest rate from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, they didn’t get it. Speaking at an international symposium in Sweden, Powell emphasized the importance of central bank independence. “Restoring price stability when inflation is high can require measures that are not popular in the short term as we raise interest rates to slow the economy,” Powell said in prepared remarks tha …