Wall Street opened with a green screen as investors digested a one-two punch of encouraging news: Big Tech earnings rolling in strong and inflation numbers that finally stopped looking scary. The S&P 500 ticked up 0.21% on July 28, with the broader market riding a wave of optimism ahead of what might be the most consequential earnings week of the quarter.
The inflation picture is finally cooperating
The Consumer Price Index for June, released on July 14, showed headline inflation dropping to 3.5% year-over-year. That’s a meaningful decline from 4.2% in May, the kind of move that makes Federal Reserve watchers exhale a little.
Core inflation, which strips out food and energy, eased to 2.6%. For context, that’s getting tantalizingly close to the Fed’s 2% target.
The reaction in risk assets was swift. Bitcoin opened at approximately $64,975 on July 15, a 4.4% jump from its previous open. Ethereum posted similar gains.
