Markets may be feeling a sense of deja vu.
After all, it was just last week when mild U.S. inflation readings came in hours before an overall hawkish stance by Federal Reserve officials, who cut their median projection for three quarter-point rate cuts to just one for the year.
With U.S. markets closed, trading may be subdued throughout the day.
Sterling remains muted and was last at $1.2711, while the dollar wobbled after retail sales data on Tuesday indicated signs of exhaustion among U.S. consumers.
The data slightly pushed up expectations of a rate cut in September, although with the Fed being so data dependent those expectations will be volatile in the near term. At the start of the year, traders had priced in as much as 160 basis points of cuts in 2024, but now anticipate 48 bps of easing.
No such worries for Nvidia as the AI darling dethroned tech heavyweight Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company at $3.335 trillion.
The rally in technology stocks continued into Asia taking regional stocks higher, with tech-focused Taiwan stocks scaling yet another record high, while South Korean stocks touched their strongest since January 2022.
