The Bureau of Labor Statistics accidentally released a subset of files containing information about Wednesday’s critical consumer price index (CPI) release 30 minutes before the scheduled release time. The agency has launched an investigation into the incident to ensure it does not happen again in the future. The early release did not have a significant impact on trading, with stock market futures rallying after the official release at 8:30 a.m. ET. The BLS did not provide further details about the early release.
Despite the early release, the CPI still showed an increase in April, although slightly less than what was expected by Wall Street consensus. The all-items CPI measure indicated a monthly increase of 0.3% and a 12-month rate of 3.4%, while core inflation, excluding food and energy, showed a 0.3% monthly rate and 3.6% annually. Despite the lower-than-expected increase, stocks closed sharply higher on Wednesday, indicating that the market was not significantly impacted by the early release of the data.
The BLS has made changes in the way it releases data in recent years, moving away from providing advance copies under a lock-up arrangement to media members. The current process involves releasing the information on the website promptly at 8:30 a.m. ET with no pre-release. This change was made in response to concerns that some clients were gaining an unfair trading advantage through the lock-up system. The incident of the early release of CPI data is believed to be a one-off occurrence.
The Labor Department agency has notified the Office of Management and Budget and the department’s Office of the Inspector General about the incident and has confirmed that it takes data security seriously. BLS officials did not provide any further information regarding the early release of the CPI data. Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at the Bleakley Advisory Group, noted that the lack of unusual trading activity prior to the official release raises questions about how significant the early release actually was in impacting trading practices.
Despite the early release, there was no indication of any material impact on trading activities in response to the CPI data. The investigation into the incident will focus on reviewing procedures and controls to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. The BLS statement did not offer any explanation for how the early release occurred, but it is believed to be an isolated incident that did not significantly affect trading activities on the day of the CPI release.
