The week's most eagerly-awaited US figures were an absolute non-event on Wall Street, with zero closing scores: Nasdaq +0.004% (thanks to Netflix with +2.8%), S&P500 -0.07% (weighed down by the energy sector), Dow Jones +0.04% at 37.711Pts, its second-best closing in history after the 37,715 of January 2, and 0.5 index points better than the 37,710.6 of December 28 (thanks to Salesforce's +2.8%).

NB: since December 14, the Dow Jones has remained locked in an incredibly narrow 37,250/37,700 range, with 90% of trading concentrated between 37,400 and 37,700, i.e. less than 1% of amplitude (since December 21, i.e. 14 sessions, a record level of immobility).

The US bond market, after several hours of post-CPI stagnation (above 4.03% for the '10 yr'), eased off from 7.45pm, ending with a substantial -5pt drop to 3.978%.

It's hard to guess that the session was punctuated by the week's most eagerly awaited figures, namely the consumer price index, which came in slightly above consensus.

The most closely watched component, Core CPI, came in at +0.3% (in line with expectations, but with inflation at +3.9% annualized vs. 3.8% expected), while the overall rate came in at +0.3% (+0.2% expected) and +3.4% annualized (vs. 3.2% expected).

Otherwise, jobless claims were virtually stable, down by -1,000 on a weekly basis, which is equivalent to the margin of uncertainty.

CPI is not emerging as a game-changer, and Wall Street may react to macro data totally unrelated to inflation, or to the release of the 1st quarterly results of JP-Morgan, Bank of America or Wells Fargo, which will open the Q4 results ball tomorrow at noon.

Note that Microsoft (+0.5% to $284) briefly took 1st place in terms of capitalization from Apple, which regained its leadership position in extremis, closing -0.3% down at $185.6 after -1% during the session, with a market cap of $2.866.5 billion at 10pm).
Tesla lost -2.9% following the announcement of the shutdown of certain production lines in Berlin.

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