'This Is What We Really Needed': NYSE Trader Reacts To Inflation Data And Its Impact On Stock Market

April's PCE report, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, came in in-line with expectations as prices appeared to remain steady. While the SPDR S&P 500 Index Trust SPY popped initially during Friday’s pre-market trading session on the report, stocks have since given up those gains as the overall market traded lower for the third day in a row.

And while the market appears to be not exactly loving the inflation report, some experts say the numbers were exactly what we needed. Jonathan Corpina, Senior Managing Partner at Meridian Equity Partners, joined Benzinga's PreMarket Prep Friday morning to provide commentary on the report and what it means for stocks.

Read Also: US Stocks Mostly Higher; Headline PCE Inflation Matches Estimates

Corpina provided a cautious outlook Friday morning before the market opened, saying he was unsure if stocks would be able to hold their gains after the spike higher following the release of April's PCE. 

"I think this is what we really needed," Corpina said. "I think we needed to take a little bit of a breather today… I don't know if this holds on all day today, we've seen a lot of risk off recently, we've seen risk off come on Fridays… so we might see a quick pop in this market but as we get to the last trading day of the month I don't know exactly if we'll be able to hold on to that."

As of Friday afternoon, Corpina's call seemed to be spot on. Despite popping higher off the report, most major indices moved into the red throughout the regular session. Tech stocks, including leaders like NVIDIA Corp NVDA and Microsoft Corp MSFT, traded lower, while some value names like energy and financial stocks traded in the green.

Click here to watch Corpina's full interview.

Now Read: ‘Inflation Bump Is Over,’ Says Paul Krugman: How Friday Data Proves Him Right

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