The most anticipated report of the month—data on U.S. consumer prices—was leaked ahead of schedule, and there’s no sign that the market noticed.
About 30 minutes before the release, or 8 a.m. Eastern, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, it unintentionally uploaded a portion of the files to the website.
It did not say which data, or if any, knowledgeable investors could have taken action based on that subset. The organization declared that an inquiry will now be conducted.
“BLS has reported the incident to the DOL’s Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Management and Budget. In order to make sure that the incident doesn’t happen again, BLS is taking its data security seriously and is looking into all of its processes and controls, the agency said in a statement.
A look at key futures contracts and currencies showed very little movement around 8 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, and then big moves at the official CPI release time of 8.30 a.m. That suggests that very few, if any, investors noticed.
The report showed the CPI rising more slowly than anticipated, news that sent stocks and bonds higher.
