Market Extra: Surge in bullish bets could help push stocks higher with $2.4 trillion in options set to expire Friday

Traders have piled into call options linked to popular U.S. equity exchange-traded funds as U.S. stocks rallied following the release of Tuesday’s consumer-price index.

That could help push stocks even higher in the days ahead, options-market strategists said.

Options tied to $2.4 trillion in stocks, exchange-traded funds and equity indexes…