Market Open: Tame US inflation revives bullish sentiment; ASX to jump

ASX200 futures imply the local bourse is set to rise +0.63% today, on the back of not-surprising US inflation overnight.

The USA’s core inflation rate has dipped to 3.6% while headline (the read including food and fuel prices) sits at 3.4%.

This was both in line with expectations, and, shows the world’s largest economy slowly trickling back towards the Fed’s ideal inflation target band of 2-3%.

In turn, the VIX retreated well away from its recent highs in Week 16 and the S&P 500 hit record levels; with the NASDAQ and Dow also enjoying a rally.

It looks like a broadly felt good mood is back in town – good news for us down under.

In Australia, energy major Santos (ASX:STO) is reportedly set to fire 200 workers as project delays hurt the company’s bottom line.

Meanwhile, Citigroup has watered down its price target for Xero (ASX:XRO) from $159.00 to $144.75, as the investment bank has its questions about Xero’s value. The stock most recently closed just over $121.00.

Elsewhere, all eyes are on Jupiter Mines (ASX:JMS), perceived as the next company most likely to produce manganese after a storm took out the export facilities at South 32’s manganese play. JMS shares have nearly doubled since that time, and manganese prices continue to rise.

In forex, one Australian dollar is buying 67 US cents.

Copper’s still hot with a pound of the orange metal currently fetching US$4.93; iron ore has dipped to US$113.70 a tonne at Singapore; Brent Crude is up 0.63% to US$82.90 a barrel, and, gas futures jumped 2.57% overnight to US$2.40 a gigajoule.

That’s Market Open, we’ll bring you an update once trade’s well underway.