Live Coverage: Markets put tin hats ahead of US inflation, volatility to leap in Gold, Stocks, US Dollar

Yohay Elam FXStreet

Inflation may be lifting its ugly head – even before Trump's tariffs come into play. Investors await CPI data with angst. Live coverage.

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December's decline may have been temporary

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the first report of hard inflation data – and the most influential. Among the figures released, core CPI MoM is the most important one, as it reflects price rises that the Federal Reserve (Fed) can impact via interest rates. After rising only 0.2% in December, the economic calendar points to 0.3% in January.

Such an increase is worth an annualized 3.6% increase, substantially above the 2% Fed target. Bond markets are already pricing out a rate cut in March, but the wait could be even longer if economic strength translates into an acceleration in inflation.

The CPI report comes on the backdrop of reports of fresh tariffs coming from the White House. These would exacerbate price rises. In addition, Fed Chair Jerome Powell returns to Capitol Hill for his second day of testimony and may respond to the data.

Fasten your seatbelts.

Gold and Stocks need lower inflation, while the US Dollar would benefit from an acceleration in price rises.

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Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

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