Devik Jain and Amruta Khandekar

(Reuters] – U.S. stock prices were expected to open lower on Wednesday, as consumers’ prices increased more than predicted in April. It fuelled concerns about tightening monetary policies.

According to the Labor Department, 0.3% increase in consumer prices was reported last month. This is a smaller gain than August’s, however, it still exceeds economists’ expectations of 0.2%.

Although the monthly inflation increase was smaller than the March 1.2% spike (the largest since September 2005), traders increased their odds that the Federal Reserve would raise the rate by 75 basis points (bps).

The money market futures currently forecast an 81% chance for a 75 basis point increase in the next month. [IRPR]

Ross Mayfield of Baird Private Wealth Management, chief investment strategist said that the upside surprise was not all bad. The peak inflation story needs to be reconsidered.

“They are fairly locked into 50 basis point rate rises. This data comes as a surprise but is still an improvement over March. They are likely on the right course and will follow their previous plan.

Investors worry that the Central Bank’s aggressive actions to lower decades-high inflation will lead to recession. The latest Coronavirus lockdowns in China are further increasing concerns over global economic decline.

Technology-heavy Nasdaq finished higher on Tuesday, though it is close to an 18 month low that was reached earlier this week. This happened because megacap growth stock fell sharply in response to worries about rising interest rates affecting future cash flows.

At 08:50 AM. ET were down 170 point, or 0.533%. They were also down 31 points (or 0.78%) and down 153.5 points (or 1.24%).

Inflation data showed that the yield of the 10-year Treasury benchmark note rose above 3%. This put pressure on growth stocks sensitive to interest rates. [US/]

Megacap stocks like Amazon.com (NASDAQ 🙂 Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ):, Apple Inc (NASDAQ):), Google Inc (NASDAQ):) Owner-Alphabet Inc Meta Platforms and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ):) Inc declined between 1.0% to 1.5%

In the midst of turmoil on global markets, which have lowered investor appetites for risk assets and led to Coinbase’s first-quarter revenues not exceeding estimates, Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:) fell 22.9%