Red meat is displayed at a grocery store in Brooklyn on May 12, 2026, in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
For weeks, Iran has dominated the headlines in your inbox. Today, another familiar specter returns: U.S. inflation.
April’s consumer price data came in hotter than expected, raising the odds of a Fed rate hike and cooling Wall Street’s record run.
Meanwhile in Asia, investors are also watching for signals from the Trump‑Xi summit as the U.S. president lands in Beijing this evening.
On the agenda: arms sales to Taiwan, rare earth exports, and the fate of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
What you need to know today
After remaining relatively subdued in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, a familiar boogeyman of equity markets has reared its head: U.S. inflation figures.
Core inflation, which strips out food and energy prices, climbed 2.8%, its highest since January 2025 and still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
The data strengthened expectations of a Fed rate hike, which could crimp markets and stifle economic growth.
Traders have raised the odds of a Fed rate hike by the end of the year to about 30%, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tracker, with a 4.5% chance of a 50-basis-point rate hike.
In Washington, a federal appeals court gave the Trump administration a temporary reprieve, allowing its 10% global tariffs to remain in place for another 10 days as the legal battle continues.
The developments brought Wall Street’s record-breaking rally to a screeching halt, with technology stocks weighing on indexes.
The S&P 500 closed 0.16% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.71%. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.11% in Tuesday’s trading session.
In other corporate news, EBay rejected GameStop‘s $56 billion takeover proposal, calling the unsolicited bid “neither credible nor attractive.”
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen last week unveiled an audacious bid for eBay in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $125 per share, despite GameStop being almost five times smaller than the online marketplace.
And finally…
Trump puts Taiwan arms sales, Hong Kong jailed activist Lai on agenda ahead of meeting with Xi
President Donald Trump said Monday that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and the imprisonment of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai would be on his agenda for the Beijing summit later this week.
Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan have been a flashpoint between the two countries, drawing a sharp response from Beijing that has accused the U.S. of violating the “one-China principle,” and warned that attempts to “contain China” via Taipei were set to fail.
Trump is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday for talks covering a wide-ranging agenda, with Iran war, trade, rare earth export controls, and Taiwan among the central issues.
— Anniek Bao
