- Wall Street indices traded higher today, supported by US CPI reading for April. S&P 500 gains 1%, Dow Jones adds 0.7%, while Nasdaq jumps 1.2%
- US headline CPI inflation slowed from 3.5 to 3.4% YoY in April (exp. 3.4% YoY), while core measure dropped from 3.8 to 3.6% YoY (exp. 3.6% YoY). Monthly headline CPI surprised to the downside, coming in at 0.3% MoM (exp. 0.4% MoM)
- While data was in-line with expectations, this was the first CPI reading of 2024 that did not show an upside surprise
- US retail sales data released simultaneously to CPI print turned out to be a disappointment. Headline retail sales for April came in flat, in spite of an expected 0.4% MoM increase. Sales excluding autos were 0.2% MoM higher, in-line with expectations
- Somewhat dovish CPI reading and disappointing retail sales data put pressure on USD, while supporting precious metals, stocks and cryptocurrencies
- Gold gains over 1% and trades near $2,390 per ounce, just a touch below all-time highs. Meanwhile, silver rallies over 3%, climbs above $29.50 per ounce and is on the way for the highest daily close since Q1 2013
- Bitcoin rallies over 5% supported by weaker US dollar. Ethereum and Dogecoin trade over 3% higher on the day
- A two-day rally in so-called meme stocks seems to have been put to an end today. GameStop drops over 25% today, while AMC Entertainment slumps over 20%
- European stock market indices traded higher today - German DAX gained 0.8%, UK FTSE 100 and French CAC40 moved 0.2% higher, Spanish IBEX surged 1.1% and Italian FTSE MIB added 0.6%
- ECB Villeroy said that European Central Bank is very likely to begin cutting rates at June meeting
- Fed Kashkari said that Bitcoin has little practical use and is not an investment vehicle or a currency
- European Commission expects euro area inflation to decelerate to 2.5% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025. GDP is seen growing by 0.8% this year and 1.4% in 2025
- The latest Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimate for Q2 is 3.8%, down from previous 4.2%
- Oil recovered part of daily losses after DOE report showed a bigger-than-expected inventory drop of 2.51 million barrels (exp. -1.20 mb)
- US business inventories declined 0.1% MoM in March (exp. 0.0% MoM)
- Canadian annualized housing starts for April came in at 240.2k (exp. 234k), down from 242.3k reported for March
- SEK dropped after Swedish inflation report showed CPI decelerating from 4.1 to 3.9% YoY in April (exp. 4.0% YoY). Core CPI remained unchanged at 2.9% YoY, in-line with market expectations
- Final French CPI report confirmed deceleration of headline measure from 2.3 to 2.2% YoY as hinted by preliminary release
- Euro area GDP report showed 0.3% QoQ expansion, in-line with preliminary reading. On an annual basis, euro area economy grew by 0.4% YoY
- Euro area industrial production dropped 1.0% YoY in March (exp. 1.3% YoY)
GOLD jumps over 1% and is approaching $2,400 resistance zone. Precious metal is trading less than 2% below its all-time highs. Source: xStation5
