U.S. inflation cools off! Gold and silver surge straight up, U.S. stock index futures jump, and expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes ease

On the evening of July 14, the U.S. released its June CPI data. The data shows that the U.S. June Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.5% year over year, versus 3.8% expected and 4.2% prior. June CPI month over month fell 0.4%, versus a 0.1% decline expected and a prior increase of 0.5%. The decline exceeded expectations, marking the first time in six years that CPI printed a negative MoM reading.

U.S. June core CPI rose 2.6% year over year, versus 2.8% expected and 2.9% prior. U.S. June core CPI month over month was flat, versus 0.2% expected growth.

After the June inflation data was released, U.S. short-term interest rate futures surged sharply. Traders significantly cut their bets on Fed rate hikes and pushed expected Fed hikes back to October.

Spot gold and silver rallied sharply upward. Spot gold broke through $4,100 intraday, up more than 2.4% on the day. As of the time of writing, it had pulled back slightly. Spot silver’s gain expanded to 3% intraday, at $59.54 per ounce.

U.S. stock index futures all jumped in sync: Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 0.07%, S&P 500 futures up 0.48%, and Nasdaq-100 index futures up 1.2%.

Cryptocurrencies rose across the board: Bitcoin rose to $63,567.3, up 1.53% over the past 24 hours; Ethereum rose to $1,829.98, up 3.36% over the past 24 hours.

The U.S. dollar index slipped in the short term, last at 100.64.