US benchmark equity indexes experienced a decline on Tuesday as the markets closely monitored the official consumer inflation report for November, scheduled for release on Wednesday. Government data is projected to indicate a rise in US consumer inflation of 0.3% sequentially and 2.7% annually for the previous month, based on a consensus compiled by Bloomberg.
In the previous month of October, the US consumer price index recorded a 0.2% increase month on month and an annual escalation of 2.6%. The National Federation of Independent Business revealed that the US small-business optimism index increased by eight points in November, reaching 101.7, the highest level since June 2021.
"The election results signal a major shift in economic policy, leading to a surge in optimism among small business owners," said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. In commodities, January West Texas Intermediate crude oil ended up by $0.22, settling at $68.59 per barrel. Meanwhile, February Brent crude, recognized as the global benchmark, increased by $0.18, reaching $72.32, driven by heightened geopolitical risk following the collapse of Syria's long-ruling Assad regime over the weekend.
In corporate news, Walgreens Boots Alliance ($WBA) is currently in negotiations for potential acquisition by private-equity firm Sycamore Partners, as reported by The Wall Street Journal citing unnamed sources. This news resulted in Walgreens shares surging nearly 17%. Conversely, MongoDB ($MDB) saw its shares plummet by 17% after the database software company projected a consumption slowdown for its Atlas cloud platform in the ongoing quarter.
$WBA $MDB $US30 $US500.