Dow ends over 500 points lower after hotter-than-expected inflation data
U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday, as the market pushed back...
U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday, as the market pushed back its expectation on the timing of the Federal Reserve's first interest-rate cut this year after January's consumer-price index inflation reading came in hotter than expected.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1.4% on Tuesday, according to preliminary closing data from FactSet. The S&P 500 finished down about 1.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended roughly 1.8% lower.
Cities around the world are set to celebrate Mardi Gras today, the final day before the Christian fasting and religious observance period of Lent begins. Mardi Gras is the culmination of the Carnival season, which officially begins Jan. 6 every year—the 12th day after Christmas—and ends the day before Ash Wednesday.
New Orleans is considered the home to the best-known Fat Tuesday festivities in the US, with at least 1 million visitors typically flocking to the city and helping to bring in up to $1B in revenue. (Although Mobile, Alabama, claims to have hosted the first Mardi Gras celebrations in the US.) The revelries also generate thousands of pounds of discarded beads; in 2018, New Orleans said it had found over 92,000 pounds of beads in its storm drains along five blocks of a parade route.
New Orleans' Mardi Gras-focused social clubs, known as krewes (see overview), will culminate Carnival season today with several parades featuring elaborate floats, including by the famous krewes of Rex and Zulu. Watch a livestream of the event here (10 am ET). See how some of the floats are made here.
U.S. stock futures slide after hotter-than-expected January CPI
U.S. stock futures aren't loving the January CPI Index. ...
U.S. stock futures aren't loving the January CPI Index. Futures jerked sharply lower ahead of the open on Tuesday after the January CPI Index came in hotter than expected, with core inflation showing a 0.4% increase last month, compared with 0.3% expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Here is where the main index futures stood after the data:
S&P 500 futures were off 1.1% at 4,987.
Nasdaq-100 futures were off by 1.5% at 17,701.
Dow futures were off by 282 points, or 0.7%, at 38,600.
Meanwhile, Treasury yields shot higher, with the 10-year yield up 11 basis points to 4.28%, hitting its second-highest level of the year intraday.
U.S. consumer prices rose 3.1 percent in the year through January, cooling less than expected.
Inflation cooled...
Inflation cooled less than expected in January and held roughly steady on an annual basis after removing food and fuel prices — a reminder that bringing price increases under control remains a bumpy process.
The overall Consumer Price Index was up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, which was down from 3.4 percent in December but more than the 2.9 percent that economists had forecast. That figure is down from the latest peak of 9.1 percent in the summer of 2022.
But after stripping out food and fuel, which bounce around in price from month to month, “core” prices held roughly steady, climbing 3.9 percent from a year earlier.
EPA, DOE to provide funding for O&G industry methane cuts
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department have announced...
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department have announced plans to provide funding to support initiatives targeting methane emissions reduction in the oil and natural gas industry. This notice of intent is meant to give potential applicants sufficient time to prepare proposals and establish partnerships ahead of the official funding opportunity announcement.