All three major US stock indexes were up in late-morning trading Wednesday after the latest reading of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge came in under expectations.

The personal consumption expenditures price index increased by 0.3% in August, matching expectations form a survey conducted by Bloomberg, and keeping the year-over-year rate at 3.4%. The headline index increased by 0.1% month over month in July. The core PCE price index, which excludes food and energy prices, increased by 0.2%, below the 0.3% gain expected and following a 0.1% gain in July. The year-over-year rate remained at 3.0%.

In company news, executives from Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google, Anthropic, Meta Platforms (META), Nvidia (NVDA), OpenAI and SpaceX's (SPCX) xAI agreed to implement a four-layer control and audit system for artificial intelligence under accord signed Tuesday with President Donald Trump. The White House Accord on Super Intelligence calls on the companies to establish internal controls to monitor capabilities and alignment of their AI models during training and deployment and to ensure they're not hacking or accessing technical systems in unintended ways. Alphabet's Class C and Class A shares were up 2.9% and 3.0%, respectively. Shares of Meta, Nvidia and SpaceX were down 1.0%, up 1.4% and up 0.6%, respectively.

Eli Lilly (LLY) on Wednesday reported positive results from a phase 2b trial of its investigational combination of eloralintide and tirzepatide in 367 obese or overweight adults with type 2 diabetes. All combinations of EloraTZP met the primary and secondary endpoints at 48 weeks, delivering "substantial" weight loss and A1C reduction, the company said. Eli Lilly shares were roughly flat.

Jabil (JBL) reported fiscal Q4 core earnings Wednesday of $.40 per diluted share, up from $3.29 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $4.07. Fiscal Q4 net revenue was $10.62 billion, up from $8.25 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $9.71 billion. For fiscal Q1, the company expects core EPS of $3.80 to $4.20 on revenue of $10.6 billion to $11.4 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $3.64 and $9.99 billion, respectively. For fiscal 2027, Jabil expects core EPS of $17.55 on net revenue of $44.5 billion. Analysts expect $16.87 and $42.82 billion, respectively. Jabil shares were down 6.1%.

Conagra Brands (CAG) reported fiscal Q1 adjusted EPS of $0.41, up from $0.39 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus of $0.28. Fiscal Q1 net sales were $2.0 billion, down from $2.63 billion a year ago but above the FactSet consensus of $2.59 billion. Conagra shares were down 5.3%.

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