Wall Street ends higher on cool inflation data, solid bank earnings

STORY: U.S. stocks closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with the Dow ending little changed, the S&P 500 adding almost four-tenths of a percent and the Nasdaq gaining nine-tenths of a percent.Second-quarter earnings season began with five big U.S. banks reporting solid results, buoyed by trading strength and dealmaking.Shares of Goldman Sachs surged 9%, while JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America also closed higher.Robert Conzo, CEO and managing director of The Wealth Alliance, said he expects corporate earnings this quarter to remain strong which should help markets advance."When you look at the earnings estimates for the second quarter, it's at 23.6 [percent], north of 20. That's coming off of a first quarter earnings of about 27 [percent]. Again, a huge number north of 20. The last time that happened was in the first and second quarter of 2021 when we were coming off of Covid. So these are big earnings projections going forward. The market was looking for that because all eyes on earnings in the face of sticky inflation.”But inflation was a little less "sticky" in June, as Tuesday's release of the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index showed the annual inflation rate dropped to 3.5%, due largely to receding oil prices that have since rebounded.Other stocks on the move Tuesday included U.S.- listed shares of SK Hynix, which soared more than 27% after tumbling on Monday following a strong Friday debut.And shares of IBM plummeted more than 25% after the tech company warned second-quarter revenue would fall below estimates.