US stocks dip after inflation data tops estimates

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks dipped early Wednesday as markets digested sharply higher inflation data while President Donald Trump landed in Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Wholesale prices rose 6.0 percent for the 12 months ending in April, according to US Department of Labor data. Month-on-month increases greatly exceeded expectations and were at their highest level since March 2022.

The data is the latest indication of how the surge in oil prices since the US-Israeli war on Iran is reverberating through the US economy.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent at 49,525.78.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 percent to 7,386.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost less than 0.1 percent at 26,078.63.

The absence of big selling “implies that the market is looking past the tensions in the Middle East, looking past elevated oil prices and basically saying this should be over in the next couple of months,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research.

Trump meanwhile landed in Beijing, accompanied by Tesla boss Elon Musk and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang.

Iran, trade and Taiwan loom over the highly anticipated meeting, which Trump had already delayed from March because of the Middle East war.