Market Highlight 13.05.2026

U.S consumer prices rose 3,8% in April from the same month in 2025, reflecting a clear impact from higher gas prices since the outbreak of the war in Iran. The data released by the Labor Department on Tuesday exceeded the 3,3% increase reported in the previous month. The April CPI reading was also the highest in the past 3 years. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy and is a key gauge closely watched by economists to better capture underlying inflation trends, rose 2,8%, above both the 2,7% forecast and the 2,6% increase recorded in the previous month.

Rising prices have become a sensitive issue for U.S households, which had expected the period of elevated inflation that hit the economy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic to be over. Particularly sharp increases were recorded in frequently purchased items such as coffee and gasoline. The tariffs announced by President D. Trump a year ago are still gradually feeding through into the prices of some goods, but the war in Iran, unfolding at the same time, has created a shock that is faster, clearer, and far more difficult to reverse. Energy prices rose 18% from a year earlier, including a 28% increase in gasoline prices and a sharp 54% jump in fuel oil prices. The April CPI report is the latest sign that the FED rate cuts once expected by the market at the start of the year are no longer feasible in 2026. The market has now largely ruled out any possibility of Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, while expectations of at least a 25-basis-point rate hike at the FED’s December meeting have risen from 25% in the previous trading session to nearly 40%.

Domestically, interbank USD/VND rose by nearly VND 15 on Tuesday and closed the day at 26.342. The effective daily ceiling yesterday was adjusted higher to 26.379, up VND 6.

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