(News Bulletin 247) – Wall Street fell on Tuesday morning, a certain wait-and-see attitude being felt on the markets on the eve of the publication of the highly anticipated inflation figures.

By late morning, the Dow Jones fell 0.1% to 33,597.1 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell about 0.5% to 12,199.8 points.

Caution seems particularly warranted ahead of tomorrow’s release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which could prompt the Federal Reserve to revise its rate expectations.

The presentation, last Friday, of employment figures well above expectations had removed the specter of a recession in the United States, but also revived speculation on further rate hikes.

Given that the Federal Reserve is very attentive to the CPI figures, and in particular to the evolution of housing costs, stronger than expected data could open the door to a possible hike in June.

The probability of a rate hike next month thus seems to be rising day by day: at 17.7%, it is now moving well above its level of the day before (15.5%) and last month. (0%), according to the FedWatch barometer of the stock market operator CME Group.

There is also the issue of the debt ceiling which is increasingly bothering the markets.

While the risk of a 2011-style shutdown seems remote for the moment, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have so far presented a solution likely to obtain sufficient support in order to raise the ceiling of the debt and to prevent the Treasury from defaulting on June 1.

In terms of values, Boeing rose 1.8% after securing a record order from Ryanair for 150 737-10 aircraft and options for 150 others.

Warner Music Group drops by 11% after having published for its second quarter 2022-23 a net profit falling by 60% to 37 million dollars.

On the Nasdaq, Palantir soars 20% after promising to remain profitable at the end of each quarter of the 2023 financial year.

On the economic front, no important indicator is on today’s agenda.

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