The S&P/ASX200 edged lower today, slipping 51.30 points or 0.70% at the time of writing to 7,227.70 and crossing below its 200-day moving average.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 0.99% and is currently 4.49% off its 52-week high.
All sectors were pointing downwards at around 3:30pm today, with Information Technology slumping the most (-2.54%), followed by Energy (-1.37%) and Consumer Discretionary (-0.98%) – Utilities was faring the least worst (-0.18%) at the time of writing.
Big week for economic data
Several key consumer and wholesale inflation reports were released last week, including the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) and the most recent retail sales report.
A hot energy market meant inflation was still running a temperature, though it didn’t seem to dampen consumer sentiment.
August CPI data indicated a 0.6% increase in August, with the year-on-year figure up 3.7%.
Energy prices were up 5.6% in the same month, and gasoline a whopping 10.6%.
Meanwhile, the PPI, released on Thursday, showed that wholesale inflation was still high in August. Headline PPI rose 0.7% in August and is up 1.6% year-over-year, against general expectations for a 0.4% monthly increase. The index soared 10.5% in August, as gas prices jumped 20%.
Retail sales were boosted by gas prices, rising 0.6% against the expected 0.1% rise.
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