Stock prices in the U.S. and Europe traded flat on Tuesday as investors reacted to the latest U.S. inflation data.
Data released by the US Ministry of Employment on Tuesday show that annual inflation in the US decreased to 6.4% in January compared to 6.5% in December, thus registering the lowest level since October 2021.
Inflation, however, is well above the US Federal Reserve’s (FRS) target of 2%.
“The most important takeaway from this report is that there has been a clear slowdown in inflation rates since peak inflation,” said Briefing.com market analyst Patrick O’Hare. “However, inflation is not yet low enough for the FRS to even consider cutting interest rates this year,” he added.
Stock prices on Wall Street had recently risen on hopes that leaving peak inflation behind would allow the FRS to pause interest rate hikes and perhaps even start cutting them this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 34,089.27 on Tuesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell less than 0.1% to 4,136.13, and the Nasdaq Composite increased by 0.6% to 11,960.15 points.
London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% to 7,953.85 on Tuesday, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 fell 0.1% to 15,380.56 and Paris’ CAC 40 added 0.1% to 7,213. , for 81 points.
WTI crude fell 1.3% to $79.06 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. “Brent” crude oil price on the London exchange decreased by 1.2% to 85.58 dollars per barrel.
On the Dutch exchange “Title Transfer Facility” (TTF), the price of natural gas rose by 1.31% to 52.39 euros per megawatt hour on Tuesday.
The euro fell to $1.0723 to $1.0739 per euro on Tuesday, the British pound rose to $1.2139 to $1.2176 per pound on Tuesday, and the dollar rose to 132.42 against the Japanese yen. to 133.07 yen per dollar. The euro fell against the British pound from 88.33 to 88.17 pence per euro.
