Fed doesn’t see enough swallows for summer

Fed policymakers surged out of the traps last night, telling markets not to get too excited by the cooler-than-expected inflation reading, but to little avail.

The Nasdaq closed up 20% from its June low, the dollar tumbled after the data, and even bitcoin – remember that? – is back above USD 24,000 and testing a two-month high.

The Fed is “far, far away from de claring victory” on inflation, said Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, despite noting the “welcome” news in the CPI report.

Inflation was flat in July, month on month, after advancing 1.3% in June, though was still up 8.5% compared to a year ago.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans joined in the chorus, saying inflation was still “unacceptably” high.

Nonetheless, Asian shares kept the rally going – MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.3% to a six week high – and European futures are also pointing to a higher open,

Whether Europe will end up in the same goldilocks scenario as across the Pacific remains to be seen. British GDP data on Friday seems unlikely to offer as positive a lead into next week’s inflation data, as last week’s US jobs data did for the US numbers.

Major European earnings on Thursday’s agenda come with a German accent, with Zurich Insurance, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens all due, followed by U.S listed Chinese tech giant Baidu later in the day.

(Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan)