U.S. stock futures whipsawed Tuesday following the release of the January consumer-price index, which showed that inflation continued to moderate last month, but not as quickly as economists had expected. Futures for the S&P 500 were marginally lower at 4,146 in recent trade, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were marginally higher at 34,282. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 25 points, or 0.3%, at 12,507. Treasury yields declined, with the 10-year yield off 2 basis points at 3.694% after falling roughly 10 basis points in the minutes after the data were released. Treasury yields move inversely to prices. Core CPI for January came in at 5.6% year-over-year, lower than the 5.7% reported during the prior month, but above a median forecast for 5.4% from economists polled by the Wall Street Journal. Headline inflation was up 6.4% year-over-year in January, the lowest rate since October 2021 and down from 6.5% from the prior month. But economists had expected it to moderate to 6.2%. “There is nothing in this CPI report to deter Fed from staying the course of another quarter-point interest rate hike, but there will still be another round of employment and inflation reports prior to the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s next meeting March 22,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.
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