The chronically high costs that have burdened the people of the United States have some highly encouraging news this Tuesday morning. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a crucial economic indicator that tracks the average change in consumer prices for a range of goods & services, showed a significant decline in inflation for the month of December; bringing it to the lowest level in nearly a year. With the latest CPI number coming in at 6.4%, it strengthens the case for lowering inflation, which can drive up cost of volatile assets like Bitcoin’s (BTC) price, which is currently trading at $21,660.
U.S. CPI Reports 6.4% Inflation
The Core CPI, which does not include volatile prices for things like gasoline and food, increased by 0.4% month-over-month and recorded an increase of 5.6 YoY% which was marginally over market predictions. The 6.5% gain in September was the highest since August 1982. According to the closely monitored index by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the underlying consumer prices increased by the least amount in the past 15 months. This makes it feasible for the Federal Reserve to further cut down on the size of interest rates it has been implementing in the country for the past few months.
According to the Labor Department, increasing housing costs were the main cause of the 0.5% monthly price increase and 60% of the 6.4% annual inflation rate that occurred last month. Last month, housing costs increased by 0.7%, bringing their annual increase to 7.9%.
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A number of factors came together in the spring of 2021 to trigger a spike in inflation, which resulted in price increases reaching their greatest levels since the stagflationary period of the early 1980s. The pandemic generated a supply and demand imbalance, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had an effect on energy prices, and billions of dollars in fiscal and monetary stimulus caused an abundance of money to hunt for fewer commodities that were caught up in supply chain issues.
Market Reaction
Stock futures were relatively up as the January consumer pricing report was expected to match market expectations. However, with the release of the U.S. CPI data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures contracts decreased by 45 points or 0.26%, futures of the Nasdaq 100 dropped by 0.11% while those of the S&P 500 jumped by 0.16% or 5.8 points.
The cryptocurrency market, on the other hand, has experienced conflicting reactions. The flagship cryptocurrency with the highest market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC), is currently trading at $21,660 and represents a decrease of 0.41% over the last hour while increasing by 0.35% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) price, however, is holding on to the $1,500 level at the time of writing.
Also Read: Crypto Prices Drop With Higher Than Expected US CPI Data
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
