Stock market today: Global stocks, Wall Street futures mixed after U.S. inflation cools
CTV
Global stock markets and Wall Street futures were mixed Wednesday after a cooler reading on U.S. inflation buoyed hopes the Federal Reserve will postpone a possible interest rate hike.
Global stock markets and Wall Street futures were mixed Wednesday after a cooler reading on U.S. inflation buoyed hopes the Federal Reserve will postpone a possible interest rate hike.
London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai and Hong Kong declined while Tokyo advanced. Oil prices rose.
Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index hit a 14-month high after official data Tuesday showed U.S. consumer inflation eased to 4% over a year earlier in May from the previous month's 4.9%. It was less than half last June's peak of 9.1% but still double the Fed's 2% target.
That reinforced hopes the Fed will avoid announcing another rate hike when its monthly meeting ends Wednesday. Two Fed board members have said the U.S. central bank should put off a hike while it studies the impact of previous increases.
"The Fed will see this as a window of opportunity to pause," Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities said in a report.
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.1% to 7,602.64. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.2% to 7,323.55 and the DAX in Frankfurt advanced 0.2% to 16,272.07.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 future was up 0.2%. That for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.1%.
