I just took a look at today’s market, and it really is a bit volatile. U.S. stock futures are uniformly trading lower: the Dow, the S&P, and the Nasdaq are all down. In particular, the semiconductor sector is seeing a collective pullback—heavyweight stocks like Nvidia and Intel are also sliding. This is also one of the main factors behind today’s sharp selloff in the stock market.

The most critical point is tonight’s release of the U.S. April CPI data. The market broadly worries that the inflation figures could come in above expectations, which directly affects expectations for Federal Reserve policy. If the CPI does rise, the U.S. dollar will be pushed higher—but that’s not very friendly for gold prices and commodities. Looking at commodities in particular, crude oil prices are actually climbing, with WTI almost pushing up to $101, mainly because the situation between the U.S. and Iran remains somewhat tense.

Another unexpected shock comes from the UK. The Prime Minister suffered a disastrous defeat in local elections, and there are loud calls within the Labour Party for resignation. The market fears that there could be changes to fiscal policy, causing the pound to drop sharply. All these factors, layered together, create multiple pressures behind today’s stock market plunge.

In addition, copper prices are moving up against the trend, climbing steadily and approaching historical highs. This is mainly due to the impact of the energy crisis in Peru. Peru is a major global copper producer, with output accounting for more than 10% of the world’s total. A shortage of energy will certainly drag on production. So the reason for today’s stock market drop is not only the correction in U.S. stocks themselves, but also multiple signals at the global macro level resonating together. It looks like market volatility may be relatively high over the coming period, so it’s important to pay close attention to the follow-up developments of these data and events.