After 14 out of 15 weeks of gains, the slightest pretext could trigger a consolidation: and so it was: inflation, which came out (slightly) stronger than expected.

Not enough to trigger a panic: the sell-off remained contained, with the Dow Jones losing -1.2% (exactly where it was at the start of the session or mid-day).
The Nasdaq-100, which is more sensitive to interest-rate tensions, did not lose its footing completely, shedding -1.6% (on 17,600 shares) in the wake of e-Bay -5.4%, Micron -4.9%, Analog -4.8%, Cadence Design -4%, Microchip -3.9%, Paypal -3.1%, Amazon and Tesla -2.2% Meta -1.9%, Alphabet -1.6%.... and Nvidia only reluctantly fell by -0.2%, which does not dent the +$600 billion in capitalization (10 times its anticipated sales in 2024) added since January 1.

The S&P500 lost -1.35%: in addition to the stocks already mentioned, it suffered from the fall of Moody's -7.9%, Marriott -5.6%, then from the sell-offs on banks and real estate specialists (land values, single-family home builders) with Beazer Homes -7.5%, Zions Bancorp -4.6%, DR Horton and Lennar -4%, Pulte Group -3.5%, Morgan Stanley -3.4%, Bank of American -2.6%....

Investors punished the US inflation figures published at 2.30pm: consumer prices rose by 0.3% (vs. +0.2% estimated) in January, or 3.1 at annual rate (vs. 3.4% the previous month).

Core underlying inflation (excluding food and energy) came in at +0.4% last month (above the median forecast of +0.3%), leaving core annual inflation unchanged at 3.9%.

T-Bond yields jumped +12pts to 4.2920% (+45pts since February 1), the '2-yr yield soared +15pts to 4.6200% (worst score since November 30, 2023 and the morning of December 13 respectively)... and the '30-yr yield climbed +12pts to 4.45% (worst score since December 4, 2023 and 50pts above the 12/27/2023 low).

This rise in yields propelled the dollar 0.5% above its levels of the previous day (a completely 'flat' session) and the euro retreated -0.6% to $1.0715.
A barrel of oil held firm, rising +0.8% on the NYMEX to $77.7.

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