U.S. stocks eke out gain after erasing most of post-inflation report rally

U.S. stocks finished marginally higher on Thursday after blowing a huge gain that had followed the release of a hotly anticipated inflation report for July. The S&P 500
SPX,
+0.03%
finished higher by 1.20 points, or less than 0.1%, at 4,468.91, according to preliminary data from FactSet. The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.12%
rose by 15.97 points, or 0.1%, to 13,737.99. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.15%
advanced 52.39 points, or 0.2%, to 35,175.75 after rising more than 450 points earlier. July inflation data came in roughly as economists had expected, with the CPI index rising 0.2% for the month. However, later in the day, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said the central bank still has more work to do to tame inflation, which pushed Treasury yields higher, in turn weighing on stocks. Bond yields move inversely to prices.