Wall Street Today: CPI likely to be another scorcher in July, economists say

Inflation in July is expected to be its hottest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting that the sharp rise in consumer prices has reached its peak, economists say.

Economists expect to see an increase in the consumer price index of 0.5% for July, or a gain of 5.3% year over year, according to Dow Jones. That compares with a 0.9% jump in June, or 5.4% on a year-over-year basis, the biggest monthly increase since August 2008

The amount of time it’s taking for chip-starved companies to get orders filled has stretched to more than 20 weeks, indicating the shortages that have held back automakers and computer manufacturers are getting worse.

Chip lead times, the gap between ordering a semiconductor and taking delivery, increased by more than eight days to 20.2 weeks in July from the previous month, according to research by . That gap was already the longest wait time since the firm began tracking the data in 2017.

Asian stocks saw modest gains Wednesday, following their U.S. peers higher as investors assessed the ability of the economy to sustain less stimulus and rising virus outbreaks. Treasuries dipped and the dollar was steady.

Shares rose in Japan and Australia and retreated in South Korea. U.S. futures were little changed. Earlier, the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 declined. Chip stocks slipped, while energy shares rallied. Crude oil bounced back from a three-week low on bets that the global demand recovery will remain intact despite the fast-spreading delta virus variant.

Millions of Americans are unemployed despite record job openings
The number of available jobs since May has outnumbered Americans looking for work. One factor is a mismatch between where people want to work and which industries are hiring.

The hardest-hit industries have yet to recover to pre-2020 levels, when 63% of Americans were in the labor force. In July, there were 5.7 million fewer jobs, on a seasonally adjusted basis, than there were in February 2020, according to Labor Department data.

A clutch of investment banks have cut their outlooks for Treasury yields after a rally this summer in the $22tn US government bond market blindsided much of Wall Street.

The 10-year Treasury yield — a key reference point for assets around the world — sank to 1.13 per cent earlier in August as the price of the debt increased sharply. The moves came despite the vigorous economic recovery and signs the US central bank was edging closer to ending its crisis-era stimulus programmes — factors that typically send yields rising.

The Tencent-backed group behind global hit game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds fell sharply in its trading debut on concerns over its high valuation, after raising $3.8bn in South Korea’s biggest initial public offering this year.

Shares in Krafton dropped close to 20 per cent in morning trading in Seoul on Tuesday and the company’s stock market capitalisation fell to about Won22tn ($19bn). Shares were down almost 12 per cent in late afternoon trading.

Here’s how the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. did versus expectations per Refinitiv estimates:

The company’s net profit for the quarter was $1.6 billion, up nearly 4,900% from a year earlier, following a volatile stretch of trading for cryptocurrencies.