Inflation climbed 9.1% in June, the highest since 1981

　　

US stock continued its slide on Wednesday amid the hot US inflation report, which weighed on financial markets and boosted speculation that the US Federal Reserve will tighten its monetary policy more aggressively. The US Consumer Price Index soared by 9.1% YoY in June, which was much worse than the 8.8% expected and also much higher than May’s 8.6% print. The biggest surge in US consumer prices since 1981 indicated escalating inflation pressures and the Fed will keep raising rates rapidly soon. On top of that, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that everything is in play to combat price pressures, which also acted as a headwind for market sentiment. In the Eurozone, the European Central Bank will start with its modest tightening in July by hiking 25 bps. Investors might keep their eyes on the interest rate differentials between the Fed and the ECB.

The benchmarks, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both dropped on Wednesday as the market expects the US Federal Reserve will likely add another 75 bps this month after the central bank has hiked rates multiple times. The S&P 500 was down 0.5% daily and the Nasdaq 100 declined with a 0.1% loss for the day. Nine out of eleven sectors stayed in negative territory as the industrials and the communication services sectors are the worst performings among all groups, losing 1.20% and 1.07%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average meanwhile declined the most with a 0.7% loss on Wednesday and the MSCI World index fell 0.4%.

Main Pairs Movement

The US dollar edged lower on Wednesday, ending its previous rally to a 20-year high and settled marginally lower after the release of the US Consumer Price Index. The DXY index witnessed fresh buying at the initial release of CPI data but then lost its upside traction, dropping to a daily low below 107.5 level to erase most of its daily gains. The higher-than-expected CPI prints continue to reinforce the case for a more aggressive tightening path from the Federal Reserve in the next months, meanwhile, equities declined and government bond yields soared amid risk aversion.

GBP/USD advanced a little with a 0.05% gain on Wednesday despite the risk-off market mood across the board. UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was climbing 0.5% in May and Industrial Production in June climbed 1.4%, but the hawkish data failed to provide support to the cable. The GBP/USD pair regained upside momentum and touched a daily high in the early US session, but then retreated to surrender its daily gains. Meanwhile, EUR/USD extended its 20-year slump to the 0.9997 level but quickly bounced back to 1.0121 in the American session. The pair was up almost 0.20% for the day.

Gold advanced with a 0.55% gain for the day after touching a daily high above $1744 during the US trading session, as the surprise in US CPI data favoured the precious metal on a mixed day of sentiment in markets. Meanwhile, WTI oil rebounded from a three-month low to $96 area amid the weaker-than-expected oil demand growth in advanced economies.

Economic Data

Currency	Data	Time (GMT + 8)	Forecast
AUD	Employment Change (Jun)	09:30	30K
USD	Initial Jobless Claims	20:30	235K
USD	PPI (MoM) (Jun)	20:30	0.8%

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