US: Stocks tread water, dollar dips as Powell maintains dovish stance

[NEW YORK] European and US stocks treaded water on Wednesday following data showing accelerating inflation, while the dollar retreated as the Federal Reserve chief maintained a dovish stance on monetary policy.

Producer price index data showed an increase of 7.3 per cent for the 12 months ended in June, its largest-ever yearly jump since the Labor Department began tracking it more than a decade ago.

The report comes on the heels of Tuesday's consumer price data that also showed a big rise, prompting an acknowledgement from Fed Chair Jerome Powell that inflation was stronger than the Fed was hoping to see and will remain "elevated" in coming months.

But Mr Powell stuck to his guns on policy, vowing to continue to provide stimulus until the recovery is complete The US economy still has "a long way to go" to return to full employment following the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Powell said in his semi-annual testimony to Congress.

The Fed "will ensure that monetary policy will continue to deliver powerful support to the economy until the recovery is complete," he said.

However, the dollar, which had rallied in anticipation that Mr Powell might articulate a timeframe to taper stimulus, pulled back.

Britain's annual consumer price index rate meanwhile jumped to 2.5 per cent in June, the highest since August 2018, data showed on Wednesday.

"Inflation is getting hotter and hotter," said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.

"The Fed and Bank of England will hope that the hot readings are a summer heatwave driven by parts of the economy that were essentially shut down last year."

Investors are on red alert over global inflation as pent-up demand and galloping prices could force policymakers to raise interest rates earlier than thought, hindering the post-Covid economic recovery.

The counterargument is that recent price increases constitute "peak inflation" and will soon ebb.

London stocks fell by 0.5 per cent. Stock indices in Frankfurt and Paris were unchanged, with many French traders away for the Bastille Day holiday.

AFP