The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 registering a record high close as Oracle shares surged and consumer price data failed to dampen investor hopes of interest-rate cuts in the coming months. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that the Toronto Stock Exchange also rose, coming within 300 points of its own record high close. The U.S. Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 per cent last month after climbing 0.3 per cent in January. Traders now see a 70-per-cent chance of the first rate cut coming in June, the CME FedWatch Tool showed, compared with 71 per cent ahead of the inflation report. Shares of Oracle jumped 11.7 per cent and reached a record high, a day after it reported upbeat quarterly results and said it is set to make a joint announcement with artificial-intelligence chip giant Nvidia. Nvidia shares gained 7.2 per cent and the main index of semiconductors rose 2.1 per cent, snapping a two-day losing streak. On the downside, shares of Boeing fell 4.3 per cent. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 61.80 points at 21,831.02, its highest closing level since April, 2022. It hit a record closing high that month of 22,087.22.