Thursday saw a small increase in U.S. markets as investors sought further economic insight from fresh consumer inflation data.
According to a Labour Department report released on Thursday, the consumer price index rose 0.4% from the previous month and 3.7% from a year ago. Both the 0.3% and 3.6% Dow Jones predictions were accurate. A 0.3% month-over-month increase and a 4.1% year-over-year increase in the core inflation rate, which excludes the cost of gasoline and food, was in line with economists’ predictions.
The information was released after the producer price index for September showed stronger-than-anticipated growth.
Although the core inflation trend continued to decline, [August’s] CPI data was a little stronger than we had anticipated. According to Andrew Patterson, senior economist at Vanguard, “We would hope for that to continue, [but] would be closely watching the pass-through of higher energy costs into broader inflation in the months ahead should they persist.”
The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict has sparked concerns about a probable oil supply shortage and subsequent increase in fuel costs if the geopolitical unrest spreads to nearby oil producers in the area. To little over $87 per barrel, Brent crude oil futures saw a 1.6% increase.
Source (CNBC)
