by Shannon Thaler
NYPost.com
Hotter-than-expected inflation data Wednesday threw cold water on investors’ hopes that the Federal Reserve would begin cutting interest rates as early as June – sending the markets plunging.
All three major stock indexes veered sharply lower at the opening bell after the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index for March was 3.5% – which comes on the heels of landing north of consensus in both January and February.
Consensus among traders is that the Fed will now hold off until September before it slashes rates from their current 23-year-high. They are also predicting there will be two cuts of 25 basis points instead of the three that had been projected this year.