US equities began higher on Wednesday as investors nursed their wounds after the worst day for stocks since June 2020.
The S&P 500 was up 0.3% after the opening bell on Wednesday, the Dow was up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) was up 0.3%.
The Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) plunged more than 5%, and the S& P 500 fell more than 4% on Tuesday, as hotter-than-expected August inflation statistics likely sealed another 0.75% rate rise from the Fed this month.
The August Consumer Price Index (CPI) revealed that consumer prices grew 0.1% over the previous month and 8.3% over the prior year, exceeding predictions for a month-on-month fall and an 8.1% increase over last year.
In a note, to clients, early Wednesday, Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at Truist Advisory Services, wrote, “This CPI report put cold water on a building market narrative that a potential easing in inflation data could provide the Federal Reserve (Fed) cover to ease up on its aggressive tightening campaign.”
As of Wednesday morning, investors were pricing in a roughly 30% likelihood of the Fed hiking rates by 100 basis points next week, as inflationary pressures seem to be entrenched in certain parts of the economy.
Powell has recently said that the Fed would increase interest rates “until the job is done,” bringing inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target. As of August, “core” inflation — the Fed’s favored metric since it excludes variable expenditures such as food and petrol — was up 6.3% year on year.
On Wednesday, the 10-year yield increased to 3.46% in the bond market.
The 2-year yield rose more than 15 basis points on Tuesday and was at 3.79% early Wednesday.
WTI crude oil was trading at $88.60 per barrel early Wednesday, up about 1.5% from the previous day. Oil prices are now up nearly $5 per barrel after approaching year-to-date lows late last week.
Bitcoin, which plummeted roughly 10% on Tuesday, remained stable at $20,300 overnight and early Wednesday, albeit it was still down 5% on a rolling 24-hour basis.
In corporate Live Stock News
Block (NYSE:SQ) stocks were down almost 4% in early trade after analysts at Evercore ISI downgraded the stock to Underperform from Outperform, citing “increasing challenges” to its core selling and BNPL businesses, according to The Fly.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) stocks were again in the spotlight on Tuesday, as the firm was one of just five in the S&P 500 to gain ground after shareholders approved Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout of the business. This permission comes on the heels of Congressional evidence from a former security executive turned whistleblower, who testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Featured Image- Megapixl @ Lichtmeister
Author Okoro Chinedu 
