Alexander Savenkov On Tuesday, the United States Labor Department announced their report on the inflation rate. This rate was higher than what was expected over the past year but still had a relatively low 6% increase. Even though this lower amount is good news, some people are worried that there could be problems ahead because of it. Market analysts are now waiting to hear what plans the American Central Bank will set in place for the federal funds rate.
Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation increased by 0.4%, which is a 6% increase compared to last year’s rate. It was expected as the index for shelter was the main factor causing this rise in inflation, and other contributing indexes were food, recreation, and furnishing related costs.
Most stocks were doing well in the market except for one kind called Russell 2000. But on Monday, this changed and all but one stock dropped, that being the Nasdaq Composite. Also, Monday marked the biggest drop in two-year Treasury yields since 1987 (known as “Black Monday”). Luckily, Tuesday saw a rise in two-year Treasury yields due to a CPI report.
According to Kevin Cummins, an economist from Natwest Markets, the fact that consumer inflation has gone down does not change anything for the markets. He said in a chat with CNBC that this situation is not as essential as before. He also believes that the Federal Reserve will not increase the federal fund rate this March. After the report from The Labor Department was shared, some stocks got better while metals like silver and gold got a bit lower at 9:00 a.m on Tuesday.
On Monday, the price of gold and silver went up when compared to the US dollar. But at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, both metals took a dip in cost – gold dropped by 0.8%, and silver dropped by 0.71%. On the other hand, digital coins (also called ‘cryptocurrencies’) saw their market value shoot up by more than 11%! Bitcoin rose around 15%, while ethereum grew even more – 8.43% to be exact – until it had a value of $1,744 per coin!
Do you think the USA’s bank is going to change the amount of money they lend and how it will affect how much money people have? Write your opinion in the comments below.
