US stocks ended Tuesday's trading session in a sea of green with the S&P 500 (^GSPC) notching a new record high as investors shrugged off hotter-than-expected inflation data.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose about 1.2% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed roughly 1.5% after two days of losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ticked up about 0.6%.

Treasury yields also gained with the 10-year yield (^TNX) rising 5 basis points to trade around 4.15%. Gold prices (GC=F) fell more than 1% to trade near $2,162.

Bank of America, which recently boosted its year-end S&P 500 target to 5,400, thinks the earnings rebound is far from over.

The firm updated its earnings per share projections for the S&P 500 (^GSPC) on Tuesday, boosting its year-end target to $250 from $235. BofA noted this is a Street high among the 21 strategists tracked by Bloomberg. In addition, BofA initiated a call for earnings per share of $275 for 2025.

The equity strategy team led by Savita Subramanian wrote the "economy remains resilient and manufacturing recovery is imminent."

Subramanian also added that artificial intelligence "hyperscalers"— Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), and Meta (META) — have been spending heavily on capital expenditures. Their combined $180 billion expected in capital expenditures for 2024 represents 27% year-over-year growth for the group and could have positive benefits for other areas of the market.

"Semis and networking are the most obvious beneficiaries, but increased power usage and the physical build-out of data centers will lead to more demand for electrification, utilities, commodities, etc," BofA's team wrote.

Tech stocks pushed markets higher on Tuesday as investors shrugged off a sticky inflation print for the month of February.

On a sector basis, Technology (XLK), Consumer Discretionary (XLY), and Consumer Staples (XLP) led the day while Utilities (XLU), Real Estate (XLRE), Materials (XLB), and Energy (XLE) were the biggest laggards.

To note, those are some of the most interest rate-sensitive areas of the market.

Boeing (BA) shares are down for a third day in a row, trading below $185 amid a series of headlines related to production scrutiny and potential plane delivery delay impacts on US airlines.

The stock was down 4% on Tuesday after the New York Times reported a recent FAA audit of the company's 737 Max production found "dozens" of problems.

The examination stems from an accident involving a door “plug” on an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight on Jan. 5. The incident unleashed widened regulatory scrutiny and temporarily grounded Boeing's 737 Max 9 planes in the US. The Department of Justice has reportedly also recently launched an investigation into the incident.

Airlines have anticipated plane delivery delays from Boeing as the industrial giant overhauls its production safety measures.

On Tuesday United Airlines (UAL) CEO Scott Kirby said Boeing has agreed to build Max 9 aircraft instead of working on the yet-to-be-certified Max 10 jet.

Southwest Airlines lowered its 2024 capacity on Tuesday as it expects 42% fewer Max deliveries this year from the plane manufacturer.

Regarding delivery timelines, Boeing said in a statement, "We are squarely focused on implementing changes to strengthen quality across our production system and taking the necessary time to deliver high quality airplanes that meet all regulatory requirements."

Boeing stock is down roughly 28% year to-date.

Here are some of the stocks leading the Yahoo Finance trending tickers page on Tuesday:

Oracle (ORCL): Shares surged 11% on Tuesday after the cloud company reported a third quarter earnings beat while revenue came in line with estimates. Analysts expect Oracle's investments and capabilities in artificial intelligence to drive future growth.

Southwest (LUV): Shares of the airliner took a nosedive on Tuesday, falling about 14% after the company said it's reevaluating prior full-year guidance amid an expected decline of 737 Max aircraft deliveries this year. Southwest said Boeing, which produces the 737 Max aircraft, told the company it expects to deliver just 46 aircraft in 2024 compared to the 79 that was expected.

3M (MMM): Shares rose 3% after the conglomerate announced William Brown as its next CEO. Brown, who previously served as the chairman and CEO of tech company L3Harris Technologies, will replace Michael Roman effective May 1. Roman will transition to an executive chairman role on 3M's board.

On Holding (ONON): Shares of the running shoe and athletic apparel brand sank roughly 14% on Tuesday after it missed fourth quarter earnings estimates on both the top and bottom lines. On expects full-year 2024 revenue to reach $2.56 billion, a year-over-year increase of 30%. Prior to Tuesday's drop, the stock had climbed about 25% since the start of the year.

Sticky inflation won't stop the stock market's recent rally.

Despite February inflation data coming in hotter than expected on Tuesday, US stocks added to gains as investors digested the report.

By late morning trading, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose nearly 1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed roughly 1.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ticked up about 0.6%.

Treasury yields also gained with the 10-year yield (^TNX) rising 4 basis points to trade around 4.15%. Gold prices (GC=F) fell 1% to trade near $2,166.

February's sticky inflation report represented the last inflation print before the Fed's next policy decision on March 20. Investors are hopeful the central bank will cut interest rates this year.

After the data's release, markets were pricing in a nearly 100% chance the Federal Reserve keeps rates unchanged next week, according to data from the CME Group.

The market still largely expects the central bank to begin cutting rates at its June meeting, pricing in roughly 60% chance of a cut. Those expectations remain unchanged despite the hotter-than-expected data.

Inflation has remained above the Federal Reserve's 2% target on an annual basis. But the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the core PCE price index, has come in below that rate on a six-month annualized basis, boosting hopes the central bank could begin to cut interest rates.

But more recent data has put a dent in that optimism, with the six-month annualized PCE price increase for January settling at 2.5%.

To note, the Fed has consistently preached that the path down to 2% will be "bumpy."

As Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger pointed out, markets began the year betting on six cuts starting in March, only to revert to three cuts starting in June following cautious commentary from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and a slew of other Fed officials along with higher-than-expected readings on inflation.

Last week, Powell said that while he expects interest rate cuts "at some point this year," the FOMC committee still wants to see "a little bit more data" before committing to cuts.

"The February consumer price index will not instill more confidence among the Federal Reserve members that inflation is on a sustainable path toward their 2% objective," Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in reaction to the report.

"A pessimistic scenario is one in which rates are higher for longer, where inflation reaccelerates and long-term inflation expectations increase, forcing the Fed to resume raising interest rates," he continued. "This is possible but unlikely, particularly as there is disinflation in the pipeline from lower market rents and a deceleration in nominal wage growth."

Read more here.

A hotter-than-expected February inflation print was largely driven by two components: shelter and gas.

The shelter index rose 5.7% on an unadjusted annual basis and 0.4% month over month, a deceleration from January's 6% annual increase and 0.6% monthly rise.

Sticky shelter inflation is largely to blame for higher core inflation readings, according to economists.

The index for rent and owners' equivalent rent (OER) rose 0.5% and 0.4% on a monthly basis, respectively. Owners' equivalent rent is the hypothetical rent a homeowner would pay for the same property. In January, the index for rent rose 0.4% while OER increased 0.6%.

Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, highlighted that "while core services inflation was again hot, the all-important core services ex housing weakened from last month while shelter inflation nudged lower."

Shah said that disinflationary trend is a positive but warned price pressures will subside "very gradually."

"This print is just about enough to keep rate cut expectations for June stable — but another print like this next month would push the first cut into the second half of the year, putting the soft landing narrative in question," the economist said.

Energy prices — largely to blame for the increase in headline inflation — rose following several months of declines, buoyed by gas prices. The index jumped 2.3% in February after falling 0.9% in January. Still, on a yearly basis, the index fell 1.9%.

Gas prices climbed a significant 3.8% from January to February after falling 3.3% the previous month. This was largely due to seasonality and a pullback in US refinery utilization.

Other indexes that rose in February included apparel, recreation, and used cars and trucks.

The BLS noted the airline fares index rose 3.6% in February following a 1.4% increase in January. The index for motor vehicle insurance increased 0.9% over the month.

The food index jumped 2.2% in February over the last year, with food prices holding steady from January to February. The index for food at home also held steady over the month after rising 0.4% in January.

Food away from home, however, ticked up 0.1% month over month after rising 0.5% in January.

Read more here.

Markets moved higher to kick off the trading day on Tuesday despite a hotter-than-expected inflation print for the month of February.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed roughly 0.7% after two days of losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ticked up about 0.3%.

Inflation pressures remained persistent in February as prices for shelter and gas rose, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday morning.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% over the previous monh and 3.2% over the prior year in February, slightly higher than January's 0.3% month-over-month increase and 3.1% annual gain.

Both measures roughly matched economist forecasts of a 0.4% month-over-month increase and a 3.1% annual increase, according to data from Bloomberg.

On a "core" basis, which strips out the more volatile costs of food and gas, prices in February climbed 0.4% over the prior month and 3.8% over last year. Both measures were higher than economist expectations of a 0.3% monthly increase and 3.7% annual gain.

Read more here.

Apple's (AAPL) stock has been looking a little less sweet in the past month.

Shares of the tech beast are off by 8.5%, lagging the S&P 500's 1.8% advance. The pundits have pointed to disappointment over Apple not yet revealing its AI plans as the main reason for the stock's weakness. Concern on the pace of China demand hasn't helped sentiment, either.

But there may be more at play here, points out Evercore ISI tech analyst Amit Daryanani in a new note to clients this morning.

Daryanani shares three reasons behind the Apple sell-off:

"We have fielded a large number of investor questions around what could unlock the upside on the stock and help drive the momentum back up. Overarchingly, we think there are three things that’s driven the “underperformance’ for AAPL over the last few weeks – 1) Risk On + Skew to Nvidia/AI: Heard this a LOT from investors that want to go overweight “AI” names like Nvidia (NVDA) especially on the mega cap side, which makes them more comfortable taking dollars away from AAPL. 2) China Worries – There continues to be data sets that suggests that China demand is broadly soft and within smartphones Apple is perhaps ceding back some of the share and 3) Regulatory worries – That continue to impede comfort around Apple. Notably, we have heard worry around DOJ/Google implications and also EU anti trust issues."