{"id":471401,"date":"2026-02-16T05:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T05:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471401\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T05:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T05:32:09","slug":"muted-u-s-cpi-and-cooling-tensions-with-iran-give-investors-some-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471401\/","title":{"rendered":"Muted U.S. CPI and cooling tensions with Iran give investors some comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People shop for fruit in a grocery store in the Manhattan borough of New York City on December 13, 2025. <\/p>\n<p>Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. consumer price index on Friday stateside provided some balm to investors, who have been singed by drops in the market because of artificial intelligence-related fears. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/13\/cpi-inflation-report-january-2026.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Consumer inflation for January<\/a> rose 2.4% on a year-on-year basis, lower than the 2.7% in December, and returning to where it was after President Donald Trump fired off tariffs globally in April 2025. Core CPI came in at 2.5%, the lowest since April 2021. Economists were expecting 2.5% for both figures.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This should be welcome news for markets, and the presumptive incoming Fed Chair\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/kevin-warsh\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Warsh<\/a>,&#8221; said Phil Blancato, Osaic chief market strategist. &#8220;This is only one month&#8217;s worth of data, but if the trend continues it should pave a path for lower interest rates and reined in inflation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>U.S. markets, however, on Friday made only tentative steps in either direction, perhaps still unsure of where to move amid uncertainty about the effects of AI on companies. All major indexes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/12\/stock-market-today-live-updates.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ended the week in the red.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another source of comfort for investors \u2014 and everyone else, really \u2014 are signs of cooling tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Both countries will be having their second round of talks on Tuesday in Geneva, Tehran&#8217;s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC, adding that the Iran is ready to discuss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/iran-open-to-compromises-to-reach-nuclear-deal-with-us-bbc.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">restricting its nuclear program<\/a> for lighter sanctions and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/iran-energy-mining-aircraft-us-talks.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">economic benefits for both sides<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/16\/japan-fourth-quarter-gdp-reverses-into-growth-but-misses-expectations-as-rebound-underwhelms.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan&#8217;s economy expanded 0.1%<\/a> in the last three months of 2025 on a quarter-on-quarter basis, reversing a 0.6% contraction in the third quarter. However, gross domestic product growth still missed the 0.4% expansion expected by a Reuters poll of economists. <\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CNBC&#8217;s Sean Conlon, Pia Singh, Lim Hui Jie and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"headline0\"\/>What you need to know today<\/p>\n<p>Data center might have to &#8216;internalize&#8217; costs, said Peter Navarro, the Trump administration&#8217;s trade and manufacturing adviser. Navarro did not detail what the White House&#8217;s plan to force data center builders to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/navarro-trump-data-centers-affordability.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">absorb costs<\/a> would look like.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Epstein files fallout:\u00a0The recent release by the\u00a0U.S. Department of Justice\u00a0of emails and other documents related to sex predator\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/11\/12\/trump-jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-emails-house-democrats.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>\u00a0has led to a wave of resignations o<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/epstein-files-fallout-goldman-ruemmler-harvard-yale.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">f high-profile people<\/a> around the world whose dealings with him have been exposed.<\/p>\n<p>Warner Bros. may reopen sale talks with Paramount, reported Bloomberg News on Sunday, citing unnamed sources. Last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/PSKY\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount<\/a> improved its offer, saying it would add a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-netflix.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ticking fee of 25 cents a share<\/a> for any delay in regulatory approval of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>The S&amp;P 500 was mostly flat, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/.DJI\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a> ticked up 0.1% and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/.IXIC\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nasdaq Composite<\/a> lost 0.22% on Friday. The pan-European <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/.STOXX\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stoxx 600<\/a> dropped 0.13%, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/OR-FR\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">L&#8217;Oreal<\/a> and <a id=\"107263844\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/\" type=\"security\" brand=\"cnbc\" section=\"[object Object]\" contentclassification=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Delivery Hero<\/a> falling roughly 4%.<\/p>\n<p>[PRO] Consumer staples are rallying in 2026 as investors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/video\/2026\/02\/09\/market-rotation-holds-as-ai-uncertainty-keeps-tech-volatile.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rotate out of tech names<\/a>. The sector is the third best-performing in the S&amp;P 500 year to date, behind materials and energy \u2014 here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/consumer-staples-are-rallying-in-2026-heres-whats-driving-the-surge.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">what is driving it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"headline1\"\/>And finally&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/15\/global-week-ahead-markets-brace-for-more-ai-noise-and-scare-trading.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Markets brace for more AI noise and &#8216;scare trading&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>AI disruption jitters have ripped through global stock markets over the last couple of weeks, with sectors across the spectrum ending up in the crosshairs of investors looking to bet on which industry could be upended by the inevitable wave of agentic AI.<\/p>\n<p>There will almost certainly be more of these moments this week, as some of the biggest names in AI take to the stage at the AI Impact Summit in India. Headliners include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/MSFT\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft<\/a>&#8216;s Brad Smith, Mistral AI co-Founder Arthur Mensch and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/META\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Meta<\/a>&#8216;s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Leonie Kidd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People shop for fruit in a grocery store in the Manhattan borough of New York City on December&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,122,218789,12,120,101,214220,218790,85965,37288,2938,45588,132570,112,2195,1536,121,72233,213761,1186,147571,21,31723,6990],"class_list":{"0":"post-471401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-delivery-hero-se","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-dow-jones-industrial-average","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-invesco-qqq-trust","15":"tag-ishares-20-year-treasury-bond-etf","16":"tag-ishares-russell-2000-etf","17":"tag-jeff-cox","18":"tag-jerome-powell","19":"tag-kevin-warsh","20":"tag-loreal-sa","21":"tag-markets","22":"tag-meta-platforms-inc","23":"tag-microsoft-corp","24":"tag-nasdaq-composite","25":"tag-paramount-skydance-corp","26":"tag-spdr-dow-jones-industrial-average-etf-trust","27":"tag-stoxx-600","28":"tag-technology-select-sector-spdr-fund","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-warner-bros-discovery-inc","31":"tag-world-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}