Good morning! I’ll be here to guide you through the latest business and economic news.
At this stage, it looks like it’ll all be about inflation today.
In a few hours, the ABS will release its latest Consumer Price Index, which has the potential to be ‘market moving’.
The CPI is expected to have fallen slightly to 3.4% in April (down from the previous month’s 3.5%), according to various economist surveys.
Generally, if the final result turns out to be higher, it’ll mean consumer prices are still rising too quickly and the Reserve Bank is unlikely to slash interest rates any time soon.
But if inflation turns out lower, it will increase the odds of the RBA cutting rates.
ASX to open lower
Meanwhile, the Australian share market is likely to fall when trading begins in a few hours, with ASX futures pointing to a 0.7% drop.
It comes after a mixed performance on US markets, which has reopened for trading after the Memorial Day long weekend. The S&P 500 was flat, the Dow Jones fell 0.6%, while the Nasdaq rose 0.6%.
Interestingly, the Nasdaq Composite lifted past 17,000 points for the first time ever (ie. a new record high).
The biggest boost was from the AI chipmaker NVidia, which saw its share price jump 7.1% on bets the artificial intelligence boom has a long way to run.
Wall Street has been hitting new records lately as investors are betting the US Federal Reserve could start cutting interest rates this year.
Expectations for the timing of rate cuts have see-sawed in recent months (as recent US inflation data has turned out to be higher or stickier than expected).
The odds of a US rate cut are just over 50% for the months of November and December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.