European markets closed higher on Tuesday as global investors digested the latest U.S. inflation report.
The Stoxx 600 index closed up 1%, extending the morning’s gains. Sectors mostly ended the session in the green, with autos up 2.4%, while utilities fell 1.2%.
The FTSE 100 hit a 10-month high Tuesday, surging more than 1.2% in afternoon trade as slowing wage growth raised hopes for interest rate cuts.
U.S. stocks were higher in early deals after U.S. inflation data came in roughly in line with expectations and paved the way for further momentum in the stock market.
The consumer price index climbed 0.4% in February and 3.2% year over year. That was in line with economists’ monthly forecast but higher than the 3.1% they expected for the annual figure, according to the Dow Jones consensus.
The uptick in January’s CPI figure rattled markets and prompted Fed officials to shift their rhetoric to a more cautious tone about easing policy. The current market pricing indicates that the Fed won’t cut interest rates at its meeting on March 19-20 or the one on April 30 to May 1.
Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter Investors, said the February figures would provide “little further reassurance” for a cautious and data-dependent Federal Reserve.
“When you also consider the strength of recent indicators, ranging from the still solid labour market to healthy corporate earnings, it seems likely that the Fed will continue to tread carefully at its next couple of monetary policy meetings,” James said in a note.
“Consensus has been building around June bringing the first rate cut, but today’s figures seem unlikely to add much in the way of certainty to this.”
Overnight, Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose as Japan’s corporate inflation figures for January came in higher than expected.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/12/european-markets-live-updates-stocks-news-us-inflation-data.html
