According to figures published today, the rise in consumer prices in the US has fallen more than expected to 3.2% year-on-year.

Year-on-year inflation in the United States was still at 3.7% in September. The consensus among analysts for the rise in consumer prices for October was a price increase of 3.3% year-on-year and 0.1% compared to the previous month. However, consumer prices actually rose by 0.1 percentage points less both month-on-month and year-on-year, by 3.2% and 0.0% respectively. The core rate of the consumer price index excluding food and energy prices also fell by 0.1% to 4.0%, contrary to the expected stagnation.

The stronger decline in inflation in the US is a positive sign for the stock markets. The Federal Reserve has always emphasised that it pays particular attention to the development of the core rate when making interest rate decisions. The current decline is a further sign that the Fed's cycle of interest rate hikes may have finally come to an end. The US indices initially reacted to the inflation data with a rise in pre-market trading.

However, this falling inflation is bad news for the US dollar. The EUR/USD exchange rate rose to the 1.08 mark following the publication of the figures, but has not yet been able to overcome it. In contrast, the gold price reacted positively to the data and is currently rising to around USD 1,955 per troy ounce.

Advertisement