Stock market news today: US stocks wobble as inflation jumps more than expected

Hertz (HTZ) stock fell as much as 4% on Thursday after the car rental company said it started selling about 20,000 electric vehicles, or about one-third of its EV fleet.

Proceeds from the sale will go towards purchasing gas powered vehicles „to meet customer demand.“

The company said part of the reason for its pivot away from EVs has to do with maintenance costs.

Hertz said, „expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs, remained high“ last quarter.

Hertz also said it expects approximately $245 million of depreciation expenses for the fourth quarter of 2023 stemming from the EV sales.

The company had plans to electrify its rental car fleet with an order of 100,000 Tesla (TSLA) Model 3 sedans by 2022, and 65,000 vehicles from Polestar (PSNY) over a five-year span.

On Thursday Hertz said it will implement a series of initiatives to improve the profitability of its remaining EV fleet.

Oil futures closed off their session highs on Thursday.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F), which had advanced more than 3%, settled up about 1% at $72.02 per barrel. Brent (BZ=F) futures lost most of their earlier gains to close fractionally higher at $77.04 per barrel.

Prices spiked on Thursday after Iran said it had seized a tanker carrying Iraqi oil in retaliation for the confiscation of the same vessel by the US last year. The incident stoked fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, electricity and gasoline costs in the US ticked up last month, contributing to a hotter-than-expected inflation print for December.

„The energy index rose 0.4% over the month as increases in the electricity index and the gasoline index more than offset a decrease in the natural gas index,“ the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said in its release.

Electricity prices rose 1.3% over the prior month. The gasoline index increased 0.2% in December following a 6% decrease in November. However, the BLS noted that before a seasonal adjustment, gasoline prices actually fell 5.8% last month.

Housing costs again had a big impact on last month’s hotter-than-expected inflation reading. But as Yahoo Finance’s Dani Romero highlights, some experts are pointing to hopeful signs in the latest data.

The shelter component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.5% in December from the previous month, up from November’s 0.4% monthly gain.

On a year-over-year basis, shelter inflation remained high— up 6.2% over the last year.

The optimistic take? That’s lower than November’s 6.5% year over year figure and March’s peak of 8.2%.

Read more here.

Cryptocurrency related stocks were lower in afternoon trade, reversing earlier gains on the first day of trading for 11 spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Marathon Digital (MARA), the third most popular ticker on Yahoo Finance, slid 14% on Thursday afternoon, despite opening the session in green territory. Riot Platforms (RIOT) fell by as much as 16%.

Coinbase (COIN), a top five trending ticker on Yahoo Finance, was down more than 5%. Earlier in the session shares spiked more than 5%.

The recently-approved ETFs, which reader can track here, allow investors to get exposure to Bitcoin (BTC-US) without having to own it.

Bitcoin surged as high as $48,000 on Thursday morning, before declining to just above $46,000 by mid-day.

Microsoft (MSFT) briefly topped Apple’s (AAPL) market capitalization during Thursday’s session, making it the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

As Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley points out, the software giant took the top spot just after the start of trading, hitting north of $2.8 trillion.

Apple’s market cap was also trading above $2.8 trillion, but was just behind Microsoft. Apple shares have struggled in the first two weeks of the year, as analysts from three banks downgraded the company’s stock amid fears of slowing iPhone demand.

Read more here.

Stocks were lower just around 12:45 p.m. ET. on Thursday.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell about 0.8% after the benchmark ended Wednesday at its highest close since January 2022, just short of notching a new record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid 0.6% and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) led the losses, falling almost 0.9%.

Some interest rate sensitive sectors like Real Estate and Financials, which had performed well in the recent market rally, fell about 1%. Utilities led the losses, falling more than 2%.

Oil futures spiked on Thursday after Iran seized an oil tanker in the gulf of Oman, fueling worries of escalating tensions between the US and Tehran.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) advanced more than 3% during the morning session. Brent (BZ=F) futures also rose more than 2.5%, trading above $78 per barrel.

Iranian military seized the tanker carrying Iraqi oil in retaliation for the confiscation of the same vessel by the US last year, according to Iranian state media.

“The Geopolitical escalation in the Red Seas area has once again reversed the bearish futures tilt,” Dennis Kissler, senior vice president at BOK Financial, said on Thursday.

Thursday’s price action was a change in direction from the the prior session when futures slid more than 1% following the release of weekly storage data. The Energy Information Administration said US crude inventories grew by 1.34 million barrels last week.

The long-awaited trading of spot bitcoin ETFs is underway.

A curated list on Yahoo Finance is tracking all the action on the ETFs. Of the newly issued ETFs, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) is seeing the highest volume in morning trade.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was trading around $46,700 amid the ETF action.

Below is a breakdown of the various fees attached to each ETF.

December’s inflation report came in slightly hotter than Wall Street expected, but it’s not moving investor bets that the Fed’s first interest rate cut could come in March.

As of early Thursday morning, markets priced in a roughly 67% chance that the Fed cuts interest rates in March, per the CME FedWatch Tool, largely unchanged from the odds a day prior.

„I don’t think it’s enough to delay cuts,“ Bank of America US economist Stephen Juneau told Yahoo Finance Live. „We’re looking for a march cut to kind of kick off the cutting cycle. This kind of keeps the door open. it definitely doesn’t slam the door shut.“

US stocks gained on Thursday morning despite a fresh reading on December inflation that came in slightly hotter than economists had expected, raising new questions about the Federal Reserve’s path on interest rates.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added about 0.2% after the benchmark ended Wednesday at its highest close since January 2022, just short of notching a new record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way, gaining 0.3%.

Thursday’s highly anticipated inflation report showed that consumer prices increased slightly more than expected in November.

A quick look at the numbers:

Headline CPI, month over month: 0.3% increase vs. 0.2% expected

Headline CPI, year over year: 3.4% vs. 3.2% expected

„Core“ CPI, year over year: 3.9% vs. 3.8% expected

Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer has all the details here.