US annual inflation dropped to 1.1% in February. It was expected to slide to 1.2% after hitting 1.6% in January. Core CPI remained unchanged at 1.6% as predicted. Month over month, both rose 0.1% as expected.
US building permits passed the 1 million line (annualized) hitting 1.02 million. These carried expectations of a rise to 0.96 million in February from 0.95 million in January. Housing starts were also expected to advance to 0.91 million from 0.91 beforehand and that’s what happened. All the January numbers now reflect revisions.
Towards this bulk of publications the US dollar was on the back foot with both EUR/USD and GBP/USD rising in range to 1.3930 and 1.6630 respectively. USD/JPY traded around 101.70. Currencies are not too excited about the numbers.
Both building permits and housing starts for January were revised to the upside, showing that the bad weather had a smaller impact than expected.
Yesterday, the Empire State Manufacturing Index disappointed with a score of only 5.6 points, while industrial output surprised to the upside with a rise of 0.6%.
The focus of the markets is now on the Federal Reserve, on Janet Yellen’s first rate decision tomorrow. An eye is also open to developments in the Russia Ukraine conflict.
Here is the Fed preview: 6 Reasons for Taper 3
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