This post was originally published on this site
Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened mixed on Tuesday after producer prices data for October reminded the market that inflation remains a live issue – and one that policymakers appear in little hurry to address.
By 9:45 AM ET (1445 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 79 points, or 0.2%, at 36,354. The S&P 500 was effectively unchanged and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2%. All three indices had ground out new record highs on Monday but appeared to be consolidating after a week of strong gains.
Factory gate prices rose another 0.6% in October, while the core PPI gain accelerated to 0.4% from 0.2% in September. That left the headline annual rate of producer price inflation at 8.6%, a fraction lower than forecasts, and the core rate at 6.8%, unchanged from September and in line with expectations. That’s still nearly twice as high as at any time in the last 10 years.
However, the risk of the Federal Reserve moving to raise interest rates quickly appears to have receded a little further since Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference last week. Reports indicate that President Joe Biden interviewed governor Lael Brainard – a woman usually seen at the dovish end of the policy-making spectrum – for the chairman’s position last week. Biden has promised a decision soon on whether or not he wil reappoint Powell for a second term.
