Investors' anticipation for the release of the consumer price index (CPI) reading today made the equity market continue to sink, driven by sentiments of concern in the market where the central bank of the United States (US) is also paying attention.
Expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will implement an aggressive rate hike, as much as 75 basis points, based on strong employment data continue to be the main focus of the market and added to by indications on the latest inflation data.
Commenting Michael Hewson from CMC Markets, all attention is directed to the US CPI reading which will determine the inflation situation.
Not to forget that China will also publish inflation readings for the great wall country today.
The streak, the Wall Street market ended weak with the Dow Jones Industrial down 0.18% at 32,774.41, the S&P 500 fell 0.42% at 4,122.47 and the Nasdaq Composite experienced the biggest decline of 1% at 12,493.93.
The European zone saw the STOXX 600 fall 0.6% after enjoying its best session yesterday from losses in the past 2 days while MSCI's world equity index fell 0.1%.
Covering the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.63% with the Topix down 0.46% while South Korea's Kospi fell 0.54% and the Kosdap weakened 0.75%.
The S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.12% and MSCI's broad gauge of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.22%.
Currency trends showed the dollar index slightly weaker this morning to end at 106.346 from 106.5.
The Japanese yen traded weaker at $135.16, the Australian dollar at $0.6953 and Sterling was up 0.4% at $1.2128.
For commodities, US crude oil futures were down 0.15% at $90.36 while Brent crude oil futures were flat at $96.25.
