Stocks, dollar, gold coast within range as markets price in Fed’s CPI

Stocks across the globe hit pause early Thursday as traders waited for the CPI print scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET, one of two inflation checks this week.

Futures for the S&P 500 barely moved, rising just 0.1%, while contracts linked to the Dow Jones posted the same gain. Nasdaq 100 futures crept up 0.2%.

Wall Street had already logged new record highs the previous day, but nobody was willing to make the next move without knowing if prices are cooling off.

According to CNBC, analysts polled by Dow Jones expect the CPI to rise 0.3% in August, with the annual figure landing at 2.9%. The core reading, which strips out food and energy, is also expected to rise 0.3% monthly and hit 3.1% year over year.

Everyone’s watching this data like a hawk, especially with Federal Reserve policy meetings just around the corner. It’s the last big inflation clue before they decide whether to cut rates, hold steady, or pull a curveball.

Asia rallies on tech deals and softening inflation bets

Asian markets showed more life than Wall Street. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 pushed to a fresh record of 44,396.95 before easing slightly to close at 44,372.5, up 1.22%. Traders there followed the lead of Wall Street’s overnight gains and optimism around lower inflation.

Big movers included SoftBank Group, which soared over 10% after riding two straight days of gains.

The pop in SoftBank came right after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that OpenAI signed a $300 billion, five-year cloud contract with Oracle. That massive deal triggered a huge reaction from Oracle stock, which jumped 35.95% by Wednesday’s close in the U.S.

The cloud computing giant now expects $18 billion in cloud infrastructure sales in 2026. Looking ahead, the company projected annual cloud sales of $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion for the following four fiscal years.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% to a record high of 3,344.2, while the smaller Kosdaq rose 0.21% to 834.76. Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 slipped 0.29%, ending at 8,805. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.21%, but its tech counterpart went up 0.23%.

Over in mainland China, the CSI 300 surged 2.31% and closed at 4,548.03. In India, gains were slower. The Nifty 50 rose 0.13%, and the Sensex edged up 0.15%.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index posted a 0.4% gain around noon London time. Construction stocks were out front, climbing 1.1% and pulling the broader index up with them.

Gold pulls back while bond yields tick up

Gold prices dipped, even though they stayed close to record levels. Spot prices dropped 0.5% to $3,621.19 per ounce as of 10:16 GMT. On Tuesday, prices had peaked at $3,673.95. Futures for December delivery also dropped 0.6%, now sitting at $3,659.70.

Traders blamed profit-taking and a stronger U.S. dollar, which gained 0.2%, making it more expensive for non-dollar buyers to scoop up gold.

Other metals didn’t escape the pullback. Silver lost 0.3%, trading at $41.01 per ounce. Platinum declined 0.6% to $1,380.64, while palladium moved in the other direction, gaining 0.7% to hit $1,182.11.

Bond yields ticked higher as the market braced for the CPI. The 10-year Treasury yield went up by 2 basis points to 4.057%, the 30-year yield climbed 3 basis points to 4.705%, and the 2-year moved 2 basis points higher to 3.554%. Just a reminder, one basis point equals 0.01%, and yields always move opposite to bond prices.

Meanwhile, global equities have been on a hot streak. The MSCI All Country World Index, which includes more than 2,500 stocks from developed and emerging markets, hit new highs for the fourth straight session, showing that global sentiment is holding up.

The rally has been powered by hopes of cooling inflation, solid earnings, and expectations that Donald Trump’s White House may favor more business-friendly policy stances this time around.

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