💸A bumpy ride for the inflation story🥃

Even as the general price level in the economy is falling, progress is slower than expected. This could push the Fed to do more to help cool inflation. That’s what we had seen in the latest CPI economic data result. 

The annual rise in CPI of 6.4% is just a tick down from the prior period of 6.5%, making it the seven consecutive months of improvement seen in the inflation reading. While this is encouraging, the CPI had risen by 0.5% in January, far higher than the 0.1% climb in December. 

This report shows that the tight labour market is still fueling inflation in a hot economy, and inflationary pressure remains. We may not see a rapid decline as expected, and the Fed will have to raise its hands again to call for more rate hikes. 

Market participants are generally at even odds with a further 25 basis point hike in March FOMC. This may put some pressure on the equity market.

📱Plantir: Light at the end of the tunnel?💎

Finally, shares are popping higher as earnings were robust after the company registered its first GAAP profit. It expects to remain profitable in 2023 as it cramps down on spending. This is sufficient for investors to cheer on its progress. 

Nonetheless, its first-quarter guidance was light on expectation, but investors gave reasons for the dismay, as the company is finishing its unpopular program of investments through SPAC mergers. This means that revenue from the SPAC program is likely to moderate from $39 million a year ago to $16 million. 

We could give some slack for Plantir partly because the first quarter tends to be its seasonally weak period. 

Let’s hope for another good quarter to boost investors’ momentum. 

📮What are our dishes today? 📖

Tons of data will be rolling out today. 

At 9.30 pm, we will have the Core Retail Sales (MoM) for Jan. We should expect a growth of 0.8%, reversing from a decline of 1.1% in the prior period. 

Many other data will be released concurrently, such as the NY Empire State Manufacturing Index, which should hint at improvement. 

Retail sales for MoM for Jan should rise by 1.8% compared to a decline in the previous period. 

Then at 10.15 pm, the Industrial Production (MoM) for January should see a rise of 0.5% compared to -0.7%. 

Business Inventories data will be out at 11 pm. We can expect modest growth of 0.3%, comparable to the prior 0.4%.