US industrial production fared much better than expected last month, the Federal Reserve said Friday, rising sharply as aircraft manufacturing rebounded after the end of a strike at Boeing.

Gas prices rose sharply, but investors homed in on a small decline in the core CPI.

In Phoenix, food away from home saw one of the more significant jumps, increasing 3.4% in the past year compared to grocery prices, which rose 0.7%. Energy prices declined overall, driven by lower gas and natural gas prices, but electricity prices increased 6.2% in the past year.

U.S. stocks traded sharply higher in Wednesday's final hour of trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 headed for a third consecutive session of gains after December's CPI data sparked a relief rally.

U.S. inflation rose 2.9% in December from a year ago, but core inflation declined to 3.2%, providing hope that the Federal Reserve could still cut its key interest rate this year.

A Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.9 per cent on an annual basis in December 2024, the highest since last July

U.S. inflation accelerated last month as prices for gas, eggs, and used cars rose, yet underlying price pressures also showed signs of easing, bolstering hopes that the Federal Reserve could still cut its key interest rate this year.

US stocks gave up early gains to end mixed. Investors await key consumer inflation data and the start of earnings season on Wednesday.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.2% last month from November, down from a 0.4% gain the month before. Compared with a year earlier, producer prices rose 3.3%, biggest jump since February 2023 and up from a 3% gain in November.

The Conference Board's Employment Trends Index, or ETI, rose for a third month in a row to 109.70 in December from a downwardly revised 109.45 in November, the research group said Monday. The rise in the index reflects the labor market's resilience entering 2025, said Mitchell Barnes, an economist at The Conference Board.

Job growth picked up in December and smashed estimates, with the U.S. labor market adding 256,000 jobs last month, far exceeding the estimate of 155,000.However, despiterobust economic data, major stock indices fell sharply on Jan.

Wall Street closed sharply lower on Friday after a day of broad-based stock market slide. Jobs data released on the day stoked fear that the central bank might opt for an even slower pace of rate cuts.