At 20:30 Beijing time on Wednesday, the United States released CPI data for April. The unadjusted CPI annual rate in April was 3.4%, lower than 3.5% in the previous month, in line with market expectations. The core CPI monthly rate in April fell back to 0.3% as expected, the lowest since December last year. The monthly rate of U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in April, recording 0%, lower than the market expectation of 0.4%.
The U.S. core CPI monthly rate cooled for the first time in 6 months, indicating that price pressures are gradually weakening and supporting the Fed's intention to keep interest rates higher for a longer period of time. Economists believe that core indicators are more reflective of potential inflation than overall CPI.
While these data may give the Fed some hope that inflation is resuming its downward trend, officials want to see more data to gain the confidence they need to start considering rate cuts. Fed Chairman Powell said yesterday that the Fed will "need to be patient and let restrictive policies work", and some policymakers do not expect to cut interest rates at all this year.
After the CPI data was released, spot gold jumped by $15 in the short term, and spot silver stood at $29/ounce, the highest since April 16. The US dollar index DXY fell sharply by nearly 40 points in the short term, and the intraday decline of the US dollar against the Japanese yen once reached 1.00%. The yield of US 2- to 10-year Treasury bonds fell by more than 10 basis points in the day after the CPI was released.