After 14 out of 15 weeks of gains, the slightest pretext could trigger a consolidation: so it was inflation, which came out (a little) stronger than expected.

Not enough to trigger a panic movement: the sell-offs remained contained, with the Dow Jones losing -1.35% and the Nasdaq-100, more sensitive to interest-rate tension, falling -1.58% in the wake of eBay -5.4%, Micron -4.9%, Analog -4.8%... and Nvidia - reluctantly - crumbles by only -0.2%, which does not dent the +$600 billion in capitalization (10 times its anticipated sales in 2024) added since January 1.

The S&P500 dropped -1.37%, also suffering from the fall of Moody's -7.9%, Marriott -5.6%, followed by sell-offs on banks and real estate specialists with Beazer Homes -7.5%, DR Horton and Lennar -4%, Morgan Stanley -3.4%, Bank of America -2.6%....

Investors punished the US inflation figures published at 2.30pm: consumer prices rose by 0.3% (vs. +0.2% estimated) in January, i.e. 3.1% year-on-year (vs. 3.4% the previous month).

The underlying inflation rate (excluding food and energy) came out at +0.4% last month (above the median forecast of +0.3%), i.e. an unchanged 'core' annual inflation rate of 3.9%.

T-Bond yields jumped +12 basis points to 4.292%, the '2-yr' soared +15 basis points to 4.62% (worst scores since November 30 and the morning of December 13, 2023 respectively)... and the '30-yr' climbed +12 basis points to 4.45% (worst score since December 4, 2023).

This rise in yields pushed the dollar 0.5% above the previous day's levels (a completely 'flat' session), and the euro retreated -0.6% to $1.0715. Oil prices held firm, rising +0.8% on the NYMEX to $77.7 a barrel.

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