Wall Street Faces All the Same Reflation Doubts After CPI Beat
Sam Potter and Anchalee Worrachate, 10 June 2021
After weeks of drift and doubt, Wall Street was looking for a decisive signal on price growth to help put the reflation trade back on track. Instead it got another mixed message.
Prices paid by U.S. consumers rose in May at the fastest pace since 2008, yet the details of data released Thursday supported the Federal Reserve’s view that the jump will prove transitory.
As investors digested the numbers, an initial increase in Treasury yields lasted little more than an hour, and by lunch they were extending recent declines. Tech stocks led the equity advance, with the Nasdaq 100 outperforming as more economically sensitive sectors lagged.
“In the end, a print like this is not enough to get the Fed to flinch, which is — big picture — what matters,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. “If the economy is strong and people are out buying and retail sales are high and prices are jumping because there’s demand, that’s good for stocks.”
The data offered little cause for conviction on either side of the inflation debate, but it was the reflationistas who most needed a boost.
