Fears of elevated interest rates dampened the mood on Wall Street at the start of this year–but cooling core inflation and dovish comments by Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller have given investors reason to feel a bit more cheerful this week.

The central bank’s recent infusion of financial-market brawn includes Beth Hammack, who worked for three decades at Goldman Sachs.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury has recently soared toward its highest level since 2023, injecting nervousness into the U.S. stock market that's knocked indexes from their records.

Consumer Price Index showed an acceleration to 2.9%, the highest rate since July. With such high inflation, the Fed is unlikely to cut rates in January.

Gold prices hovered near a five-week high on Friday and were set for a third straight week of gains, as U.S. inflation data released earlier this week revived expectations that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates more than once this year.

Following the US Fed rate cut buzz on soft US core inflation data, MCX gold rate registered gains during early morning deals on Thursday. Gold futures contract on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX)m for February 2025 expiry opened flat at ₹78,