US CPI falls in July, markets mixed as investors analyse Fed comments

EU markets were mixed following positive US CPI data   

European markets were mixed on Thursday morning following positive US CPI data.  

The DAX was 0.27% lower in early trade on Thursday meanwhile both the FTSE 100 and CAC 40 saw minor gains, rising by 0.09% and 0.08% respectively.  

European equities close higher on Wednesday and top US indices followed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) closing 1.63% higher, the S&P 500 gaining 2.13% and the NASDAQ Composite up by 2.89%. 

US CPI falls to 8.5% in July, Fed comments  

US CPI data fell to 8.5% in July from the previously reported at 9.1% all-time high in June, this was 0.2% lower than the analyst expected 8.7%.  

While this has raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at a much slower pace, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank president, Neel Kashkari, said that despite the slowdown of inflation, the Fed is “far away from declaring victory”.  

The Fed is aiming to raise rates two 3.9% by the end of the year and two 4.4% by the end of 2023 interest rates are currently in the 2.25-2.5% range. 

Oil surged despite supply disruption concerns easing  

Brent and Crude oil futures edged higher on Thursday morning, growing by 0.44% and 0.51% respectively, despite supply disruption concerns easing.  

US Crude oil stocks rose by 5.5 million barrels per day in the last week, EIA data showed, more than the expected 73,000 barrels.  

Gasoline supplies also rose last week, up to 9.1 million barrels per day although data showed that demand stayed low, down by 6% over the past four weeks compared with the year prior.   

Gold futures lower  

Gold futures fell by 0.48% and were valued at 1,804.95/oz on Thursday morning.  

Silver futures also followed the negative trend, down by 1.36%.  

Platinum futures, on the other hand, were 1.09% higher and palladium futures gained 0.7%. 

Disney posted higher than expected results  

Disney posted higher-than-expected financial results last night bolstered by a rise in subscribers for its streaming service Disney+ and increased spending at domestic theme parks.  

The total number of Disney+ subscriptions rose to 152.1 million during the third quarter, higher than the 147 million prediction by analysts.  

The company’s revenue surged to $21.5 billion vs the expected $20.96 billion.  

Disney’s theme parks, experiences and the products division also saw an increase in revenue by 72% to $7.4 billion during the third quarter – up from $4.3 billion the same period one year ago.  

The company’s shares are 6.85% higher in pre-market trade. 

Coca-Cola HBC loses over $195 million due to exit from Russia  

Coca-Cola HBC said it suffered a one-time hit of 190 million euros ($195.36 million) in the first half of the year due to costs related to its Russian business. The company decided to pull out its products from the country in protest, against Russia’s war in Ukraine.  

The company also revised its forecast, now expecting its operating profit for 2022 to be between 740 million and 820 million euros, further affected by a smaller presence in Russia and rising inflation. The forecast is significantly lower than its reported profit of 831 million euros in 2021.  

The firm used to count Russia as one of its biggest markets and is currently expecting to sustain financial charges of about 82 million euros in the second half of the year.  

Despite the negative news, the company’s shares were around 2% higher this morning.   

Hapag-Lloyd sees a triple H1 net profit   

The German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd said its net profit surged to 8.7 billion euros ($8.94 billion) in the first half of 2022 – three times higher than for the same period last year.  

The company upheld forecasts made on 28 July for full year 2022 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to range between 18.2 billion and 20.1 billion euros, however, forecasts remained subject to uncertainties about the war and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“Across the world, the economy is not developing convincingly and that has a bearing on our business,” the company’s CEO, Rolf Habben Jansen, told Reuters.  

The company’s stock fell by more than 2% this morning.   

Top cryptocurrencies bullish as BTC surges past $24,000  

Bitcoin (BTC), the top cryptocurrency y market capitalisation, managed to surge past the $24,000 levels once again on Thursday morning, gaining 0.32% and boosting other cryptocurrencies alongside with it.  

Ethereum (ETH) was 0.3% higher in the past 24 hours. BNB gained 0.38%, Cardano (ADA) was up by 0.28%, however, Solana (SOL) fell by 0.36%.  

The popular Elon Musk-endorsed memetoken Dogecoin (DOGE) was 0.31% higher.