Stocks advanced on Wall Street on Wednesday following an update indicating that inflation in August was not as severe as economists had anticipated.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.4% and is on the verge of concluding September with a modest gain rather than a loss.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 137 points, or 0.3%, as of 2:10 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite stood 0.9% higher.

The morning’s report indicated that U.S. consumers had to contend with a cost of living that was, overall, 3.4% higher in August than a year earlier.

That fell short of the 3.7% economists had anticipated, even though it remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

The report followed others from earlier in the month about inflation during August, but this is the one that the Federal Reserve prefers to use.

Traders pared bets that the Federal Reserve will raise its main interest rate next month to get inflation further under control.

They now see just a 39% chance of that, down from the coin flip's chance seen a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

Wall Street continues to contend with persistent pressure exerted by the bond market.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 5.30% from 5.26% late Tuesday.

As the centerpiece of the bond market, its yields on Tuesday touched their highest level since 2002.

The 30-year Treasury yield, which reflects expectations for inflation and economic growth over a horizon spanning many years, rose to 5.64% from 5.59% late Tuesday.

Higher yields slow the broader economy by making borrowing more expensive for everyone, while also reducing prices across many types of investments.

Wall Street is registering an uptick in early trading.

Of course, concerns about high inflation are only one reason yields have risen in the United States and worldwide.

The apparently solid U.S. economy, which keeps going despite its many difficulties, is also supporting yields, and a report on Wednesday said its growth in the spring was stronger than previously estimated.

A separate report, meanwhile, indicated that growth in business activity across the Midwest surpassed economists' expectations.

Other factors that are driving yields higher also continue to churn, including concerns about the large debt burdens that Washington and other governments around the world are supporting.

The bond market also came under upward pressure from another rise in oil prices, which have been fluctuating due to uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow crude flows to be fully restored.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 2.2% to $98.26 per barrel.

On Wall Street, Hewlett Packard Enterprise contributed to driving the market higher, climbing 5.5%.

The company raised its revenue forecast for its networking business, which is capitalizing on the surge in artificial-intelligence technology.

Another AI beneficiary, Nvidia, ranked among the most potent forces propelling the S&P 500 upward, having gained 1.4%.

It has nonetheless found itself under mounting pressure, in tandem with the wider industry, amid apprehensions that its share price has climbed excessively high.

Elevated interest rates deal a particularly severe blow to stocks perceived as the most overvalued.

Nvidia also benefits from lower yields, as they make it cheaper for customers to borrow money to build AI data centers.

MongoDB surged 4.8% after announcing that its board had increased the database company's program to return cash to shareholders through buybacks of its own stock by $1 billion.

This helped MongoDB recover part of its steep loss from earlier in the week, after it said Chirantan "CJ" Desai was stepping down as CEO to take a senior role at Meta Platforms.

Such gains helped offset a 2.6% decline for Cal-Maine Foods after the country’s largest egg producer reported a loss for the latest quarter that exceeded analysts’ expectations.

With an ample supply of eggs available on the market, Cal-Maine Foods experienced a precipitous drop in the prices it was able to charge relative to a year earlier.

In overseas stock markets, indices declined across Europe following a mixed close in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.9%, whereas France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.9%, constituting two of the more significant movements worldwide.