Wall Street rises as Fed rate-cut bets gain steam

STORY: Wall Street stocks closed up Tuesday with the Dow advancing 1.4%, the S&P 500 rising nine tenths of one percent and the Nasdaq adding two-thirds of a percent.A series of economic data appeared to support the case for the U.S. Federal Reserve to implement its third and final rate cut of the year in December.The Commerce and Labor departments issued September reports on retail sales and producer prices, respectively, which showed spending softened and that inflation continued to cool.More recent data from the Conference Board showed a worse-than-expected deterioration of consumer confidence, with near-term expectations tumbling nearly 12%.That reinforced the “bad news is good news” sentiment as signs of a weaker economy and tamer prices may convince the central bank to reduce rates.But expectations have been all over the map recently, making Mike Mussio, president of FBB Capital Partners, less certain of what the Fed will do.“Right now, we put a December rate cut at a coin flip. It's the variability in the space of two or three trading days in terms of probabilities, getting cut to a third of where they were five weeks ago to doubling over the course of three days. It's tough to know exactly where they are, but it does sound like there is ample dissent one way or the other at the Federal Reserve. So we put it at a coin flip. “Stocks on the move included a trio of retailers.Kohl’s jumped an astounding 42% after hiking its annual earnings forecast, while Abercrombie & Fitch surged a just as impressive 37.5% after raising its forecast.But Burlington Stores plunged 12% after its third-quarter revenue missed estimates.