After a mostly positive report, US stocks experienced extreme volatility. After the mild deceleration in pricing pressures compared to a year earlier, the knee-jerk reaction was dollar strength. Yields surged as a result. Big drops in used cars and airfares were offset by strong increases in apparel sales and medical care.
The Fed won’t be changing their message, which means Wall Street is still confident that we could see just two more quarter-point rate increases.
The US stock market is falling as disinflation trends are threatening, which could lead to the Fed increasing rate hikes or keeping them higher longer.
CPI
The January inflation report supports the Fed’s latest mantra of ‘higher for longer’. The Fed will be focusing on month-over-month inflation readings that indicate an acceleration in inflation. Here, disinflation trends will be tested and there will likely be a steady chorus from the Fed.
Inflation rose by 0.5% in January according to forecasts, and was also higher than the 0.1% decrease in December. Core inflation rose to 0.4% on a monthly basis.
The consumer prices rose 6.4% from one year ago, which is higher than the…
