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Stocks rise after softer United States inflation, positive 4th quarter earnings

Global shares jumped and the dollar fell on Wednesday, after data showed core U.S. inflation increased less than anticipated in December, raising the opportunities of a. second rate cut this year, while financiers cheered the first. wave of quarterly profits.

The Bureau of Labor Stats stated the customer price index. ( CPI) rose at a yearly rate of 2.9% in December, from. November's 2.7%, in line with expectations for 2.9%.

Core inflation, which omits food and energy costs, rose. by 3.2% below forecasts for a yearly increase of 3.3%.

U.S. stock index futures skyrocketed 1.5-1.7%,. having been up previously by simply 0.3%, while the dollar fell 0.5%. versus a basket of significant currencies.

Contributing to the upbeat tone for the stock market were bumper. fourth-quarter arise from the likes of JPMorgan, which. reported its most significant annual revenue on record on Wednesday, top. property manager BlackRock, which logged a record $11.6. billion in assets, and Goldman Sachs, which saw profit. more than double in the final 3 months of 2024.

U.S. Treasury yields= RR>>, which hit 14-month highs. near 4.8% earlier this week, fell 8.6 basis points on the day to. 4.704%.

The core index rose a cooler-than-expected 3.2% year on. year, the slowest rate since last August, and an indication of. underlying inflationary pressures fading somewhat, Pepperstone. senior research study strategist Michael Brown said.

Taking a step back, the CPI figures do not include especially. much to the more comprehensive discourse, instead, serving to re-affirm. that underlying price pressures remain relatively stubborn, and. that the course back towards the 2% inflation target will be a. fairly rough one, he said.

MORE RATE CUTS

Nonetheless, the futures market showed traders now anticipate. near 40 basis points in rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. this year, from around 30 bps before the inflation data.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was one of the. best-performing major equity indexes, up 0.9%, as shares in. rate-sensitive homebuilders rallied dramatically after data previously. showed British inflation suddenly cooled in December.

This possibly also gives the Bank of England more space to. cut rate of interest this year, which in turn provided some support. to the country's battered federal government bonds, which have seen. long-dated yields hit their highest in almost thirty years this. week.

Benchmark 10-year gilt yields fell 14 bps to. 4.75%, while sterling itself was up 0.6% on the day at. $ 1.223.

The euro increased 0.3% to $1.0303, while the Japanese. yen stayed the stand-out performer. The dollar fell by as much. as 1% after the U.S. inflation data to 156.415.

The yen already got a lift overnight, as traders priced in a. 70% chance the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates in. January after Governor Kazuo Ueda said policy-makers would. talk about such an alternative next week.

In commodities, oil costs rallied 0.5%, supported by the. weaker dollar, to trade at $80.34 a barrel, while gold. , which tends to perform well when bond yields fall, rose. 0.3% to $2,687 an ounce.

(source: Reuters)