CPI eases inflation concerns, market risk preference heats up

News on March 13, the year-on-year growth rate of US CPI in February fell to a new low since November last year, and the core CPI year-on-year growth rate hit a four-year low. Inflation was lower than expected across the board, alleviating concerns about "stagflation". Traders increased their bets on interest rate cuts, and market risk preference warmed up.

The three major U.S. stock indices showed different performances: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.20%, the S&P 500 rose 0.49%, and technology stocks rebounded strongly driving NASDAQ to rise more than 1.2%. Tesla surged over 7% and Nvidia rose over 6%. However, the market is still worried that inflation slowdown may be temporary; this concern is reflected in Dow's three consecutive falls and limited gains in S&P showing cautious sentiment.

The cryptocurrency market has warmed up with Bitcoin surging to $84,539 at the moment when CPI was announced before falling back near $80k where it found support then continued its rebound standing above $84k at time of writing with a gain of 2% within past twenty-four hours. Other mainstream tokens have shown slight increases while Ethereum remains sluggish trying to stay above $1900 USD; BNB boosted by Abu Dhabi's investment of two billion dollars rose by nearly five percent.