Coffee With Greta: Inflation on the Brain
DJIA Futures: +63 (+0.2%)
SPX Futures: +15 (+0.4%)
NASDAQ Futures: +38 (+0.3%)
Good morning friends!
Futures are up as the market looks ahead to key inflation data this week.
Let’s get right to it!
Has Inflation Peaked?
That’s the big question on traders' minds this week and they’ll get their answer soon.
The August CPI will be out tomorrow morning with the PPI on Wednesday morning.
Annual headline inflation pressures are expected to have cooled again to 8% from 8.5% in July as gas prices continued to fall.
Economists expect the core CPI to tick up to 6% from 5.9%.
This is the final piece of inflation data that will be released before the Fed meeting September 20-21.
CME Groups FedWatch Tool shows the market pricing in an 88% chance of another 0.75% rate hike.
Crypto Rallies Ahead of Inflation Data
Cryptocurrencies are following stocks higher ahead of this week’s inflation data.
CoinGecko shows the global crypto market cap is up 1.1% over the past 24 hours to $1.12 trillion.
Bitcoin is up 3.2% to over $22,300 and has rallied about 17% after falling to its lowest level since June last Wednesday.
But Ethereum is dipping ahead of a major upgrade to its network, called The Merge, this week.
The network upgrade will move Ethereum from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake model.
The change will significantly reduce the amount of energy the network uses.
Twitter Dismisses Musk’s Latest Attempt to Ditch Deal
Twitter (TWTR) dismissed Elon Musk’s latest effort to show the company has breached the acquisition agreement.
In an SEC filing, the social media giant said payments to a whistleblower did not breach any of its obligations under the deal.
Musk sent a third letter last week trying to call off the deal.
That letter alleged a $7.75 million severance payment to a whistleblower was a breach of the takeover agreement.
Twitter said it still intends to enforce the agreement and close the deal.
Shareholders will vote on Tuesday whether to approve or reject the takeover.
Oil Prices Rise As Supply Worries Mount
Oil prices are higher today as uncertainty over supply rises.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures are up 1.7% to over $88 bbl while Brent crude futures are up 1.9$ to $94.50 bbl.
There’s new uncertainty about the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, which had previously caused hope Iran could fill gaps caused by Russian oil losses.
But France, Britain, and Germany said over the weekend they had “serious doubts” about Iran’s intentions to revive the deal.
The EU embargo on Russian oil takes effect on December 5.