Hitting Home Wall Street may have been down overnight but it was pretty clear yesterday’s action on the ASX was all about Sydney. With the lockdown extended not one, not two, but four more weeks, memories are evoked of last year’s three-and-a-half month run in Melbourne. And that was the less contagious Wuhan strain. Ceteris paribus, the market should have been chuffed with the June quarter CPI numbers. Yes, headline inflation surged 3.8% but unlike in the US, where headline numbers well exceeded forecasts, economists here expected 3.7%. And unlike the US, where core inflation numbers equally surged, our core inflation remained barely moved at 1.6% year on year, and still well below the RBA’s target of 2%. The headline number, up from 1.1% in the March quarter, was elevated by the oil price rally and cycling last year’s free child care – factors that will ease in coming quarters.