US stocks shrug off inflation data, end flat
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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York City.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK - Wall Street stocks were little changed on Jan 11 as investors largely shrugged off disappointing inflation data.
The Department of Labour’s consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, was up 3.4 per cent from a year ago and up slightly from November.
The data had been keenly anticipated for its implications on potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
But after a meandering session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up less than 0.1 per cent at 37,711.02.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent to 4,780.24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was unchanged at 14,970.19.
“The CPI was not a good number... but (it) wasn’t bad enough to give us a real reason for a sell-off either,” said Mr Steve Sosnick, of Interactive Brokers.
“And that’s why we were sort of muddling around at slightly lower levels.”
Among individual companies, Citigroup fell 1.8 per cent after disclosing billions of dollars in fourth-quarter costs. The bank will report earnings on Jan 12, along with several other large lenders.
Boeing dropped 2.3 per cent as US air safety regulators announced a probe into the company following last week’s emergency landing of an Alaska Airlines plane after a panel blew out mid-air.
Hertz tumbled 4.3 per cent as it announced plans to sell one-third of its electric vehicles due to lackluster demand for the autos in the United States. AFP
