Stocks, dollar, gold coast within range as markets price in Fed’s CPI

Stocks across the globe hit pause early Thursday as traders waited for the CPI print scheduled for 8:30 a. m. ET, one of two inflation checks this ￰0￱ for the S&P 500 barely moved, rising just 0.1%, while contracts linked to the Dow Jones posted the same ￰1￱ 100 futures crept up 0.2%. Wall Street had already logged new record highs the previous day, but nobody was willing to make the next move without knowing if prices are cooling ￰2￱ to CNBC, analysts polled by Dow Jones expect the CPI to rise 0.3% in August, with the annual figure landing at 2.9%.

The core reading, which strips out food and energy, is also expected to rise 0.3% monthly and hit 3.1% year over year. Everyone’s watching this data like a hawk, especially with Federal Reserve policy meetings just around the corner. It’s the last big inflation clue before they decide whether to cut rates, hold steady, or pull a ￰3￱ rallies on tech deals and softening inflation bets Asian markets showed more life than Wall ￰4￱ Japan, the Nikkei 225 pushed to a fresh record of 44,396.95 before easing slightly to close at 44,372.5, up 1.22%. Traders there followed the lead of Wall Street’s overnight gains and optimism around lower ￰5￱ movers included SoftBank Group , which soared over 10% after riding two straight days of ￰6￱ pop in SoftBank came right after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that OpenAI signed a $300 billion, five-year cloud contract with ￰7￱ massive deal triggered a huge reaction from Oracle stock, which jumped 35.95% by Wednesday’s close in the ￰8￱ cloud computing giant now expects $18 billion in cloud infrastructure sales in ￰9￱ ahead, the company projected annual cloud sales of $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion for the following four fiscal ￰10￱ in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% to a record high of 3,344.2, while the smaller Kosdaq rose 0.21% to 834.76.

Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 slipped 0.29%, ending at 8,805. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.21%, but its tech counterpart went up 0.23%. Over in mainland China, the CSI 300 surged 2.31% and closed at 4,548.03. In India, gains were ￰11￱ Nifty 50 rose 0.13%, and the Sensex edged up 0.15%.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index posted a 0.4% gain around noon London ￰12￱ stocks were out front, climbing 1.1% and pulling the broader index up with ￰13￱ pulls back while bond yields tick up Gold prices dipped, even though they stayed close to record ￰14￱ prices dropped 0.5% to $3,621.19 per ounce as of 10:16 ￰15￱ Tuesday, prices had peaked at $3,673.95. Futures for December delivery also dropped 0.6%, now sitting at $3,659.70. Traders blamed profit-taking and a stronger U. S.

dollar, which gained 0.2%, making it more expensive for non-dollar buyers to scoop up ￰16￱ metals didn’t escape the ￰17￱ lost 0.3%, trading at $41.01 per ￰18￱ declined 0.6% to $1,380.64, while palladium moved in the other direction, gaining 0.7% to hit $1,182.11. Bond yields ticked higher as the market braced for the ￰19￱ 10-year Treasury yield went up by 2 basis points to 4.057%, the 30-year yield climbed 3 basis points to 4.705%, and the 2-year moved 2 basis points higher to 3.554%. Just a reminder, one basis point equals 0.01%, and yields always move opposite to bond prices. Meanwhile, global equities have been on a hot ￰20￱ MSCI All Country World Index, which includes more than 2,500 stocks from developed and emerging markets, hit new highs for the fourth straight session, showing that global sentiment is holding ￰21￱ rally has been powered by hopes of cooling inflation, solid earnings, and expectations that Donald Trump’s White House may favor more business-friendly policy stances this time ￰22￱ crypto news deserves attention - KEY Difference Wire puts you on 250+ top sites