U.S. stocks open lower after CPI data show January inflation slightly hotter than anticipated

U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday as investors parse data from the consumer-price-index showing inflation in January was slightly hotter than anticipated even as the year-over-year rate continued to decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite shed 0.7%, according to FactSet data, at last check. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday that the consumer-price index rose 0.5% in January for a year-over-year rate of 6.4%. That’s above the 0.4% rise that economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast for January. Still, the pace of inflation slowed over the past 12 months from a year-over-year rate of 6.5% in December. Meanwhile, core CPI data, which excludes food and energy prices, showed inflation rose 0.4% in January and climbed 5.6% year over year. That was also above expectations.

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