Coming off of a flat Monday, world markets have been trading steady to down slightly with investors seemingly caught like deer in the headlights of the oncoming barrage of inflation reports from around the world. China kicks things off overnight tonight followed by several European countries including Germany, France, Italy and Spain in the early morning hours tomorrow. The US reports consumer price inflation Wednesday morning with the street expecting a slight decrease in headline inflation and a slight increase in core inflation (excluding food and energy prices) from last month. US producer price inflation follows on Thursday morning. Combined, all these reports may act as an indicator of whether pressure on central banks to remain hawkish is increasing, stabilizing or decreasing.
Overnight trading action saw the Nikkei decline 0.9% and the Hang Seng slide 0.3%. In Europe this morning, the FTSE is up marginally, while the Dax is down 1.0% and the CAC is down 0.4%. In the US, Dow futures are down marginally, while NASDAQ futures are down 0.6%.
10-year treasury yields are steady ahead of tomorrow’s big inflation numbers with the US near 2.8%, the UK just below 2.0%, and Germany just below 1.0%. The US Dollar is down 0.2% against the Euro, Pound and Gold, and steady with the Loonie. Cryptocurrencies are backsliding at bit with Bitcoin down 2.6% and Ethereum down 3.9%. Commodities are picking up today with WTI crude oil up 1.3%, natural gas rebounding 1.8%, and copper gaining 0.2%.
