{"id":58615,"date":"2026-02-16T19:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/global-markets-us-inflation-cools-to-2-4-as-ai-disruption-fears-trigger-tech-rotation\/58615\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:13:07","slug":"global-markets-us-inflation-cools-to-2-4-as-ai-disruption-fears-trigger-tech-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/global-markets-us-inflation-cools-to-2-4-as-ai-disruption-fears-trigger-tech-rotation\/58615\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Markets: US Inflation Cools to 2.4% as AI Disruption Fears Trigger Tech Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>US headline inflation cooled to 2.4% in January<\/strong>, falling below the expected <strong>2.5%<\/strong> and down from <strong>2.7%<\/strong> in December, significantly boosting expectations for a <strong>Federal Reserve<\/strong> rate cut as early as June.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Global trading remains thin<\/strong> as US markets are closed for <strong>Presidents&#39; Day<\/strong> and major Asian hubs, including <strong>China<\/strong> and <strong>South Korea<\/strong>, remain shut for the week-long <strong>Lunar New Year<\/strong> holidays.<\/li>\n<li><strong>AI &quot;cannibalization&quot; fears<\/strong> are driving a sharp rotation out of megacap technology stocks like Nvidia (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVDA\">NVDA<\/a>) and Apple (<a href=\"\/stock\/AAPL\">AAPL<\/a>), with software and services indices plunging <strong>20%<\/strong> over the last month.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Japan&#39;s Q4 GDP disappointed<\/strong> with a mere <strong>0.2%<\/strong> annualized growth rate against estimates of <strong>1.6%<\/strong>, pressuring the <strong>Japanese Yen<\/strong> as USD\/JPY rebounded back above the <strong>153.00<\/strong> level.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/gold\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"gold price today\">Gold prices<\/a> held firm near record levels<\/strong>, trading at <strong>$5,030.30<\/strong> per ounce, supported by falling Treasury yields and record monthly inflows into gold ETFs totaling <strong>$19 billion<\/strong> in January.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Global financial markets entered a period of holiday-thinned volatility on Monday as investors digested a cooler-than-expected US inflation report. The <strong>Consumer Price Index (CPI)<\/strong> for January showed headline inflation easing to <strong>2.4%<\/strong>, the lowest level in nearly five years, which has led money markets to price in a <strong>68% probability<\/strong> of a <strong>Federal Reserve<\/strong> interest rate cut by June. While the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/sp500\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"snp500 today\">S&amp;P 500<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/SPX\">SPX<\/a>)<\/strong> finished Friday nearly flat at <strong>6,836.17<\/strong>, the benchmark <strong>2-year Treasury yield<\/strong> fell to <strong>3.41%<\/strong>, its lowest daily close since 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The technology sector continues to face significant headwinds as a new narrative of <em>AI-driven structural disruption<\/em> takes hold. Investors are increasingly wary of &quot;AI losers&quot;\u2014companies in software, business services, and media whose pricing power may be threatened by generative AI tools. This sentiment saw Nvidia (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVDA\">NVDA<\/a>) and Apple (<a href=\"\/stock\/AAPL\">AAPL<\/a>) decline more than <strong>2.2%<\/strong> on Friday, while the Nasdaq Composite (<a href=\"\/stock\/IXIC\">IXIC<\/a>) edged down <strong>0.2%<\/strong> to <strong>22,546.67<\/strong>. Conversely, non-tech sectors such as finance and industrials have seen renewed interest, with NatWest (<a href=\"\/stock\/NWG\">NWG<\/a>) climbing <strong>4.8%<\/strong> following a price target upgrade from Citigroup (<a href=\"\/stock\/C\">C<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In the commodities space, a &quot;RAMmageddon&quot; is feared within the memory-chip industry as the rapid build-out of AI data centers diverts capacity, threatening to squeeze margins for electronics manufacturers. Meanwhile, precious metals remain a primary focus for diversification; gold is currently testing the <strong>$5,140<\/strong> resistance level after recovering from a brief &quot;flash crash&quot; earlier in the month. <strong>China<\/strong> remains a &quot;silent regulator&quot; of these prices, though its domestic markets will remain closed through <strong>February 23<\/strong>, potentially limiting further upside in industrial metals in the near term.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate activity is highlighted by a developing battle in the logistics sector as the money manager <strong>Aberdeen<\/strong> announced its opposition to a <strong>$9.25 billion<\/strong> takeover of InPost (<a href=\"\/stock\/INPST\">INPST<\/a>) by a consortium led by FedEx (<a href=\"\/stock\/FDX\">FDX<\/a>). Aberdeen, which holds a <strong>0.2%<\/strong> stake, characterized the bid as an &quot;opportunistic attempt&quot; to exploit temporary stock weakness. Traders are also looking ahead to a heavy earnings week starting Tuesday, with high-profile reports due from Walmart (<a href=\"\/stock\/WMT\">WMT<\/a>), Warner Bros. Discovery (<a href=\"\/stock\/WBD\">WBD<\/a>), and Palo Alto Networks (<a href=\"\/stock\/PANW\">PANW<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways US headline inflation cooled to 2.4% in January, falling below the expected 2.5% and down from 2.7% in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[95,225,633,1032,1876,3710,3712,4223,17257],"class_list":["post-58615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-nasdaq","tag-aapl","tag-nvda","tag-fdx","tag-sp-500","tag-federal-reserve","tag-cpi","tag-inflation","tag-ai-disruption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}