By James Langton

(April 14 – 09:00 ET) – After a stronger than expected Producer Price Index yesterday, the U.S. Consumer Price Index came in today up 0.7% on the headline, and 0.4% on the core today. That’s higher than the expectations of 0.5% and 0.2 % respectively. Traders did not like the numbers, sparking a sharp sell-off in stock futures.

U.S. Federal Reserve Board chair Alan Greenspan is speaking yet again today, but he can’t be expected to do much to dull expectations for future rate hikes.

European stocks are down across the board, led by techs and telecoms. London’s FTSE has dropped 106 points to 6251. The French CAC 40 is down 73 points to 6191. Germany’s DAX has dropped 53 points to 7396.

There’s no real merger news today, although Ford Motor Co. says its shareholders will receive as much as US$10 billion when it spins off its parts unit, Visteon Automotive Systems later this summer.

In Asia stocks slipped, too, in anticipation of today’s U.S. CPI and on the heels of further Nasdaq selling. The Nikkei closed the week down 92 points to 20434. The Hang Seng dropped 210 points to 16142.