US equities were sold-off in the hour of trade following the release of the highly anticipated January CPI report which showed inflation in the US remains stubbornly hot. For January, US inflation came in at a rise of 0.5% which translated to an annual gain of 6.4%, which was above economists’ expectations of a decline in CPI to 6.2% YoY. The way inflation has remained stubbornly high is further support for the Fed to continue raising interest rates for a little while to come in order to cool inflation to the target range of around 2%. Stocks recovered in afternoon trade though to close mixed with the Dow Jones ending the day down 0.46%, while the S&P500 fell just 0.03% and the Nasdaq closed up 0.57%. The winning stocks in the US today were Boeing adding 1.25%, Nike rallying 0.83% and Chevron climbing 0.77%. Coca-Cola and Home Depot each fell 1.6% on Tuesday.

Over in Europe on Tuesday markets closed mostly higher but pared back early gains as investors digested the mixed US inflation data for January that may prompt the Fed to announce further rate hikes. The Stoxx 600 closed 0.1% higher, Germany’s DAX fell 0.11%, the French CAC rose 0.07% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 rose 0.08%.

What to watch today:

• On the commodities front, oil is trading 1.4% lower at US$79/barrel, gold is down 0.28% at US$1848/ounce and iron ore is down 2.38% at US$123/tonne.
• Ahead of the local trading session, the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX to open 0.01% higher following the recovery on Wall St in afternoon trade.
• Reporting season continues today with some big names releasing results today including Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA), Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) and Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG).
• The Aussie dollar is buying US$0.70 US cents, 92.84 Japanese Yen, 57.45 British Pence and NZ$1.10.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Camplify (ASX:CHL) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 11-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $2.05 to the range of $2.47 to $2.57 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 61-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $4.82 to the range of $4.24 to $4.34 according to standard principles of technical analysis.