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US CPI (inflation) data released yesterday showed inflation slightly lower than expected, boosting US stock markets and risk-on sentiment.

1. Yesterday's release of US CPI (inflation) data was slightly better than expected. The annualized rate was expected to remain unchanged from last month at 2.4%, but it ticked a fraction lower to 2.3%. Both Core CPI and regular CPI were expected to show a month-on-month increase of 0.3% but the actual rates were 0.2%. This gave a boost to risk sentiment and was expressed in the US stock market, helped by President Trump's announcement on a visit to Saudi Arabia of a huge deal where Saudi Arabia will purchase $142 billion worth of military equipment from US manufacturers and invest billions more (possibly as much as $600 billion) in the US economy. This pushed US equities to extend yesterday's gains significantly, with both the Nasdaq 100 Index and the S&P 500 Index rising firmly - each index is now trading well above its 200-day moving average, after strong and significant recoveries from the "Trump tariff lows" of a few weeks ago. The outlook is looking more bullish for US stock markets, and Asian stocks are also mostly advancing today.
2. Australian Wage Price Index data released yesterday showed wage inflation running slightly hotter than expected, with wages rising by 0.9% over the previous quarter when an increase of 0.8% was predicted. This suggests Australian inflationary pressures are still slightly on the hot side, and that may have helped boost the Aussie during the Asian session, with the AUD/USD currency pair slightly higher.
3. German and Japanese inflation released yesterday came in exactly as expected.
4. The Forex market had a relatively quiet Asian session, with little price movement. Yesterday saw many currencies make gains against the US Dollar.
5. There will be a release much later of Australian Unemployment rate data.

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