NEW YORK/ LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) -
A global equities index fell slightly on Wednesday while Treasury yields edged down and the dollar rose against a basket of major currencies as traders were cautious the day ahead of U.S. inflation data that could influence the timing of the Federal Reserve's easing cycle.
Investors were focused squarely on January's U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), due on Thursday as it is the Fed's preferred inflation measure.
A Reuters poll shows that economists expect the index to have risen 0.3% on a monthly basis in January compared with a 0.2% increase in December.
Traders have already dialed back initial expectations for
Fed interest rate cuts after a slew of strong data, including
sticky consumer price index
"We're on hold until we get the PCE print. The market's
going to chop around," said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager
and lead portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers
Solutions. "Between CPI and PPI there's a narrative that
inflation is going to be sticker than expected or even
potentially having a modest re-acceleration."
But he noted that U.S.
stock indexes
were still not far from records reached last week despite
the PCE jitters.
This is partly thanks to a fourth-quarter earnings
season looked better than expected and included a boost from
Nvidia to broader optimism about artificial
intelligence.
"The market's had every chance to sell off but its
holding up pretty well," he said. "It's actually been looking
past inflation to an extent because earnings has been better
than expected."
Other data due this week that may shape expectations on
the Fed's policy include a second estimate of gross domestic
product, jobless claims and manufacturing activity.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe
shed 0.29% while on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average
fell 68.19 points, or 0.17%, to 38,904.22.
The S&P 500 lost 7.63 points, or 0.15%, to
5,070.55 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 60.02 points,
or 0.37%, to 15,975.28.
Meanwhile,
European stocks
had dipped as lackluster corporate earnings also weighed on
sentiment with the pan-European STOXX 600 index down
0.35%.
The U.S. dollar rose as investors positioned for U.S. and
European inflation data due on Thursday, while the Australian
and New Zealand dollars tumbled after New Zealand’s central bank
cut its forecast peak for interest rates and Australian consumer
price inflation held at a two-year low
The dollar index rose 0.058%, with the euro
down 0.03% to $1.0841.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.12% versus the greenback at
150.69 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at
$1.2662, down 0.17% on the day. U.S. Treasuries
yields edged down after solid economic growth in the fourth
quarter barely budged bonds as investors awaited for the
inflation data for insight into Fed rate cut timing.
Benchmark 10-year notes were down 2.8 basis
points to 4.288%, from 4.315% late on Tuesday. The 30-year bond
was last down 1.6 basis points to yield 4.424%, from
4.44%. The 2-year note was last was down 5.2 basis
points to yield 4.6602%, from 4.712%.
In crypto currencies, bitcoin surged for a fifth day
buoyed by flows into new U.S. spot bitcoin exchange traded
products that have driven it up nearly 40% in February, which
would mark its largest monthly rally since December 2020.
It was last up 9.1% at $61,875.11, hitting its highest
level since November 2021.
Gold prices ticked up on Wednesday as traders strapped in
for key economic data and comments from U.S. central bank
officials on the timeline of interest rate cuts.
Spot gold added 0.2% to $2,033.80 an ounce.
In
commodities
, oil futures trading was choppy as the prospect of delays
to U.S. interest rate cuts and a higher-than expected rise in
U.S. crude stocks offset support from a potential extension to
OPEC+ supply cuts.
U.S. crude recently fell 0.32% to $78.62 per
barrel and Brent was at $83.48, down 0.2% on the day.
(Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Ankur Banerjee in
Singapore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Jamie Freed,
Tomasz Janowski, Nick Macfie and Aurora Ellis)
