Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com – Inflation has returned to the forefront of attention as the U.S. releases its highest CPI figure in over three decades. China’s manufacturers are also taking a beating, as there was a 13% jump in factory gate costs through October. Rivian’s IPO will be the largest since Facebook’s (NASDAQ:) in 2012. Weekly jobless claims for October are also due a day earlier. After the surprise stock market drop, oil prices are near their peak for this year. Disney (NYSE) announces earnings following the close. What you need to know about the financial markets on Wednesday, October 10th.

1. Back on the radar: Inflation; new low for jobless claims

The official U.S. inflation rate is set to hit a 30-year high at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), when the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases October’s consumer price index. Analysts predict that the CPI will rise 5.8% over a year ago, and the core CPI index (which excludes volatile food prices and energy prices) will have increased 4.3%.

Both cases will see an acceleration since September. However, given that annual rates are heavily influenced by basis effects, the monthly price increases may be of more importance in measuring the current strength of an inflation dynamic that is starting to spook markets again – Tuesday’s chunky rise in producer prices being a good illustration.

The Labor Department also releases weekly unemployment data due to Veterans Day on Thursday. In the face of a national shortage of workers, initial jobless claims will likely have fallen to 265,000.

2. Rivian prices for IPOs are above its top range

Rivian, an electric van maker that Amazon (NASDAQ) and Ford have backed, will be making the largest market debut of a U.S. firm since Meta Platforms in Faceb-.

The company’s initial public offering was priced late on Tuesday at $78 a share, giving it a valuation of $77 billion on a fully-diluted basis. It’s a great price, considering the company has yet to record any significant revenue. Bankers at the company had revised its marketing range to $72-$74 from $57-$62 per Share.

This listing is timely for electric vehicle investors, as Elon Musk plans to sell approximately $21 billion worth of Tesla stock (NASDAQ:), to help pay his taxes. Tesla stock steadied in premarket trading on Wednesday after falling 12% on Tuesday in response to an SEC filing that showed Musk’s brother Kimbal cashed out a large chunk of Tesla shares a day before Musk held his Twitter (NYSE:) poll flagging the stake sale.

3. Stocks to Open Lower; Disney Earnings Eyed 

U.S. stock markets more broadly are set to open lower, however, as Tuesday’s producer price data from the U.S. and even more alarming PPI data from China overnight put inflation and the need for tighter monetary policy back on the radar.

At 6:20 am ET, they had fallen 81 points (or 0.2%), while the 0.3% decline and 0.4% were still in effect. On Tuesday, all three indexes were down.

Stocks likely to be in focus later include Upstart (NASDAQ:), which was hit by profit-taking after its results late on Tuesday, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:), which was also lower after the EU’s top court dismissed its appeal against a $2.8 billion antitrust fine. The most notable earnings report is Disney, which will be released Wednesday after the close bell.

4. China’s factory gate price rises

After data showed that producers prices increased by 13.5% in October, inflation was the headline of the day for China. This was an increase of 10.7% from September, and well beyond the consensus forecast at 12.4%. High energy costs meant that manufacturers had to increase their output in order to keep up with the booming global market.

The Chinese consumer price index also increased by 0.7% in the same month. This brought the annual rate up to 1.5%, which is a twelve-month record. That sparked concern that the People’s Bank of China may be constrained in its ability to support the economy with looser monetary policy if the crisis in the country’s real estate sector requires it.

China Evergrande will likely meet its dollar interest payments Wednesday, according to many people. This is after it announced a small asset sale earlier this week. Fantasia shares fell to an all-time low following claims by its lenders that they were seeking early repayment.

5. Some gains are made by oil ahead of EIA inventory figures

Crude oil prices gave up some of their gains after Tuesday’s surge in response to a surprising draw on U.S. crude stocks last week.

U.S. crude oil futures fell 0.5% to $83.80 per barrel at 6:25 AM ET. This was after they had tested the $85 mark Tuesday, when the American Petroleum Institute reported that crude inventories have fallen by 2.5 million barrels, instead of rising by 1.9million as predicted. The Energy Information Administration data are expected to be released at 10:30 am ET.

The U.S. government decision to shelve the idea of releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve also supported prices overnight – a move that analysts had dismissed as unlikely to have any lasting effect in any case, given current global supply-demand dynamics.