(News Bulletin 247) – The US equity markets fell back on Tuesday at the start of the session, investors seeming to worry about the less marked than expected slowdown in consumer prices in the United States in January.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones fell 0.7% to 34,003.7 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.5% to 11,832.5 points.

Investors had no emotion at the statistics released an hour before the opening, which show that US inflation is only receding very slowly.

According to the Labor Department, the rise in the consumer price index certainly slowed down to +6.4% on an annual basis in January, compared with +6.5% in December.

But analysts were hoping for a more marked slowdown in inflation, to around 6.2% year-on-year.

Wall Street retreated following the release of these figures, which suggest that the Federal Reserve will remain on its course of monetary tightening.

These indicators are even reflected in a slight upturn in risk aversion, as illustrated by the rise in safe havens such as gold and the dollar.

Following the statistics, the yield on the US 10-year bond is recovering beyond 3.75%, with inflation figures fueling expectations of a sustained rise in interest rates.

As for values, Coca-Cola fell 1.2% in the wake of declining quarterly results, due to the strength of the dollar and the persistence of inflationary pressures.

Ford fell 0.5% after formalizing plans to cut 3,800 jobs in Europe as the US automaker sought to ease its cost base ahead of the coming economic downturn.

On the technology front, Palantir soared 16% after reporting Tuesday’s first quarter profit in its history, while Nvidia climbed 3.5% under the effect of favorable remarks from BofA.

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