Global stocks slip as investors mull red-hot inflation and supersized central bank rate hikes

• US stock futures fell Thursday with investors fretting about a fresh batch of worrying economic data.
• Wednesday's CPI data showed that prices are still soaring, with inflation at a 40-year high of 9.1%.

Global stocks fell on Thursday as a surprisingly high US inflation number spooked investors and potentially set the Federal Reserve on the route to even steeper interest rate hikes.

Wednesday's consumer price data showed inflation hit a four-decade high of 9.1% in June, outpacing economists' predictions for an 8.8% rise.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.58% in early European trading, while Nasdaq futures and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 0.62% and 0.55%, pointing to another slide at the opening bell later.

This week's above-consensus inflation reading makes it more likely that the Fed will aggressively hike interest rates. The US central bank already raised rates by 75 basis points for the first time since 1994 last month as it tries to bring soaring prices under control.

"A 75 basis point hike at the next Fed meeting is now fully priced in, with Fed funds futures pointing to some chance that the central bank may even hike 1%," UBS chief investment officer Mark Haefele said.

The Bank of Canada surprised investors by raising rates by 100 basis points on Wednesday, and the Royal Bank of New Zealand hiked rates by 50 basis points as well this week.

"Canada's actions yesterday in raising by 100 basis points may well have opened the door to the Fed also being more aggressive, even though it is by no means a done deal," CMC Markets' chief analyst Michael Hewson said.

The MSCI World Index of global shares dropped 0.25%. Stocks in Europe led the sell-off, with the continent's flagship Stoxx 600 slipping 0.36%. Paris' CAC 40, Frankfurt's DAX 40 and London's FTSE 100 tumbled 0.49%, 0.14%, and 0.33%, respectively.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.37%, while the Shanghai Composite closed 0.08% lower. But Japanese investors appeared more optimistic, as the Nikkei 225 rallied 0.62%.

Here's how other major asset classes are performing so far on Thursday:

• Oil slipped again with investors rattled by higher inflation data. Brent crude fell 0.49% to just over $99 a barrel, while WTI crude dropped 0.65% below $96 a barrel.
• The dollar posted further gains after breaking parity with the euro and rallying against the British pound, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. The US Dollar Index - which measures the greenback's performance against six other major currencies - climbed 0.38% to 108.37.
• Treasury yields rallied as expectations of a hawkish Fed grew, with US 10-year yields up 6.8 basis points to 2.97% and US 2-year yields - which are most sensitive to inflation data - climbing 6.7 basis points to 3.21%.
• Safe haven assets slipped despite investors' fears about inflation, with gold tumbling 1.16% to just over $1,715.55 an ounce and silver dropping 1.43% to $18.92 an ounce.
• Cryptocurrencies rallied despite news of Celsius Network's liquidation, with bitcoin jumping 1.31% to just under $20,000 and ethereum climbing 2.42% to nearly $1,100.