Bear and Bull

Was the Strong CPI Report A Bearish Gamechanger?

What’s in Today’s Report:

  • Was the Strong CPI Report a Bearish Gamechanger?
  • Inflation Hedge Part 2:  Natural Resource Stock ETFs
  • EIA and Oil Market Update

Futures are modestly lower mostly on momentum from Wednesday’s drop following a generally quiet night.

There was no new inflation news overnight, but investors are cautious ahead of the PPI report this morning, which should be similarly strong to yesterday’s CPI report.

Bitcoin and the entire crypto-currency space is getting hit hard after Tesla (TSLA) announced it would no longer accept Bitcoin as a form of payment and that’s weighing on some of the momentum parts of the market.

Looking forward to today, the key number will be PPI.  Expectations for PPI are 0.3% m/m and 5.9% y/y but if the numbers come in much stronger expect that to send yields higher and to hit stocks, at least temporarily.

The other notable number this morning is Jobless Claims (E: 475K) although that will start to fade a bit in importance as the market views the issues in the labor market as supply based (people not choosing to work) rather than demand based (people not being able to work).

There are also three Fed speakers today Barkin (10:00 a.m. ET), Waller (1:00 p.m. ET), Bullard (4:00 p.m. ET), and any commentary on inflation will be closely watched.