Why did U.S. stocks look so grim last night?

The culprit is actually the freshly released PPI data!
💡 So what exactly is PPI?
Simply put, PPI is "the boss's wholesale invoice."
If the price we pay for a pork rib bento box is called CPI, then the price the boss pays at the wholesale market for pork, eggs, and vegetables is PPI.
🔥 What happened with that invoice last night?
America's February wholesale invoice just arrived, and it turns out: "Wow, it's super expensive!"
Overall increase of 3.4%: much higher than everyone expected.
Vegetables skyrocketed 50%: this number is no joke, the boss is practically in tears looking at vegetable prices.
📉 What does this have to do with us investors?
The boss can't make money anymore: wholesale costs went up, and if they don't dare raise prices, company profits will shrink, and stock prices will naturally fall.
The inflation fire is still burning: if upstream costs don't come down, downstream prices won't either.
Rate cuts will have to wait: everyone was expecting the Federal Reserve (Fed) to cut rates soon, but seeing this "piping hot" invoice, the Fed definitely won't dare to casually ease rates.
In fact, the Fed Chair even mentioned: rate hikes have been discussed as a possibility.
Not cutting rates is bad enough, but if rates could potentially rise in the future, that's a giant black swan for the stock market.