1) U.S. inflation soars to a record high in four decades
U.S. consumer prices in December rose to the level not seen in 40 years as rental accommodation and used cars remained solid, pushing inflation to 7%.
An escalated inflation bolstered expectations of the U.S. Federal Reserve to start raising policy rates as early as March and could be three more hikes for the rest of the year.
Used cars and trucks inflation are one of the most obvious transitory effects of the coronavirus pandemic, rebounding again to 37.3%.
2) Oil closed higher on Wednesday as U.S. inventories fell more than expected
U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell by 4.6 million barrels in the week ended January 7 to 413.3 million barrels to the lowest levels since October 2018. The draw was more than expected of a 1.9 million barrel draw from a Reuters poll.
Brent crude closed 1.1% higher at $84.67 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate closed 1.8% higher at $82.64 a barrel.
3) Global weekly cases surge to record high amid omicron spread
The global infections of Covid-19 rose to a weekly-record high on the previous week as a record of 15 million new-Covid cases were reported amid the spread of Covid-19 omicron variant.
Still, the World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that hospitalizations for Covid-19 patients are not quite as high as seen in previous surges of the delta variant, which could be possibly due to decreased severity of omicron compared to delta and widespread immunity from vaccines and prior infection.
