Retail sales, industrial output, and fixed-asset investment all came in lower than expected
Wall Street stocks finished lower overnight despite U.S. inflation was lower than expected. Consumer prices in August rose 0.3% over the previous month versus 0.4% expected. It looks like weak figures failed to ease investor concerns about Federal Reserve policy tightening which may start before the end of the year. As such, the S&P lost 0.57%, giving up the previous day’s gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.84% and 0.45%, respectively.
Asian stocks were mostly lower on Wednesday, with the South Korean Kospi bucking the trend to edge 0.15% higher. Investors were disappointed by weak economic data out of China. Retail sales, industrial output, and fixed-asset investment all came in lower than expected amid coronavirus outbreaks. Against this backdrop, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slid 1.84%, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.17%, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.52% and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 retreated 0.27%.
In Europe, equities slipped on Wednesday amid worries about a slowing Chinese economy. On the data front, German inflation is expected to slow to 2% to 2.5% in 2022 from an estimated 3% this year, the Ifo institute said. U.K. consumer prices rose 3.2% on the year last month, the highest rate since March 2012.
In currencies, dollar demand has eased across the market today after US CPI missed expectations. As a result, EURUSD turned positive to erase previous losses and extended gains to the 1.1830 area. Still, the pair refrains from revisiting yesterday’s highs registered around 1.1845 in a knee-jerk reaction to inflation data. Now, the common currency needs to hold above the 1.1800 figure in order to stay afloat and retain a bullish bias in the short term.
