Oil Prices Surge Past $100 Per Barrel Amid Market Uncertainty
Oil prices have breached the $100 per barrel mark, causing alarm in the market. Brent crude oil reached $100.45 per barrel last night, up 2.9% from Tuesday's closing price of $97.92, while WTI crude oil climbed to above $95 with a 2.4% increase.
The Federal Reserve's interest rate hike path may not be as straightforward as the market imagines due to rising oil costs, which have historically been a leading indicator for predicting PPI trends. The transmission of oil prices to the industrial production chain has caused concern that even if this week's PPI and CPI rise passively due to oil costs, the root cause of inflation seems more like a supply shock rather than overheating demand.
The American Bank Research Institute and NRF/CNBC retail monitoring data show consumer credit card spending and retail growth are cooling down. The year-on-year growth rate of total consumer credit card and debit card spending fell from 6.3% in June to 5.0% in July, while the core retail sales year-on-year growth rate dropped from 10.08% to 4.72%, a decline of more than 5 percentage points.