Headline Inflation Surged In March, But Core Remained Muted

U.S. headline CPI surged in March, driven primarily by energy and food prices, while core inflation—excluding volatile food and energy components—remained subdued. The divergence highlights that broad-based price pressures have not materially accelerated, limiting immediate repricing of inflation expectations. This dynamic reduces the likelihood of aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, keeping real yields in check and supporting longer-duration assets. Markets will focus on the upcoming PCE deflator data, particularly the core reading, to assess whether services inflation is cooling as expected. Any sustained moderation in shelter and wage-sensitive components will be critical for confirming a downtrend in core inflation.

HIGH-impact news is typically a market-moving event with multi-pip or multi-percent intraday reactions. Examples include central bank rate decisions, major CPI/NFP releases, geopolitical shocks, mega-cap earnings beats/misses, and regulatory announcements. Traders typically position-reduce or hedge ahead of scheduled HIGH-impact events, and follow the wire in real time to react to unscheduled ones (war headlines, central-bank emergency statements, surprise corporate actions). The Trading News Terminal squawk box reads every HIGH-impact headline aloud the moment it hits the wire — so active traders don't have to stare at the feed.

Active traders typically follow a three-step workflow when a market-moving headline hits the wire: (1) read the headline on the terminal or hear it on the squawk box; (2) assess whether the news is already priced in (by checking intraday price action in the seconds before) or whether it's genuinely new information; (3) act — either entering a breakout position, fading an overreaction, or tightening stops on existing trades. Trading News Terminal's Pro plan delivers wire-grade headlines within seconds of the source, with automatic audio squawk on every HIGH-impact event, so the read-assess-act cycle never waits on a refresh button.