U.S. stocks open higher after report showing inflation in May eased as expected

U.S. stocks opened higher Tuesday after a report showed inflation in May eased in line with expectations from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.40%
rose 0.2% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.58%
gained 0.4% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.56%
climbed 0.8%, according to FactSet data, at last check. Inflation, as measured by the consumer-price index, edged up 0.1% in May for a year-over-year rate of 4%, according to a report Tuesday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So-called core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices, climbed 0.4% in May for a 5.3% rise over the past 12 months. The rise in the cost of living in the U.S. has softened from April, when the year-over-year rate for headline CPI data ran at 4.9% and core inflation was at 5.5%.