Analysts' reactions to the inflation data are starting to pour in.

"The 0.5% m/m [month-on-month] rise in core consumer prices last month adds to the evidence that inflation remains stubbornly high, but the ongoing fallout from the SVB crisis over the coming days is still likely to have a bigger bearing on what happens at next week’s FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting," says Andrew Hunter, deputy chief US economist at Capital Economics.

“Investors will cautiously welcome today’s figures as they show inflation has slowed," says Richard Flynn, managing director of Charles Schwab UK.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

The details of the monthly inflation report are as important to analysts as the big number - and even though food and petrol are top of mind for most people, economists say other items typically provide a clearer picture of the big trends.

The consumer price index rose 0.5% from January to February, if food and energy was not included. That was a bit faster than expected.

But the Labor Department said housing costs remain the biggest factor pushing up prices - accounting for 70% of the increase.

Most analysts say government figures reports increases in housing prices at a lag, and that the increases currently are less dramatic.

So that could mean inflation pressures in the economy are easing more than the figures suggest.

What does the inflation report mean for the Fed?published at 12:42 Greenwich Mean Time 14 March 2023

12:42 GMT 14 March 2023

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Now that the inflation figures are out, the big question is what will the US central bank do next?

Prior to SVB’s collapse, analysts were all but certain that the US Federal Reserve - the Fed - would keep raising interest rates to try to stabilise prices.

The head of the bank has said getting inflation under control is critical, despite concerns that the rapid increase in borrowing costs will hurt the economy.

But the SVB episode has raised concerns about the fragility of financial markets. Some analysts expect the Fed to hold off on an increase at their meeting next week - or even cut rates.

The figures today won't necessarily clear up that debate.

Image source, .

The inflation figures are in.

Prices in the US rose 6% over the 12 months to February, according to the Labor Department.

That was down from 6.4% a month earlier, in line with expectations - but not necessarily a big comfort to the US central bank, which has been fighting to stabilise prices.

It wants to see inflation - the pace at which prices rise - running at about 2%.

Global banking shares remain under pressure today following the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)'s collapse.

Regulators in the UK, the US and Asia have acted quickly to try to contain any fallout from the US bank's demise. But there are fears that other banks may be vulnerable.

The Bank of Japan provided further help to keep financial markets stable after its leading stock index fell 2.1%.

But investor fears continue that other banks may be exposed to similar problems.

Read more here.

• Two banks collapsed over the weekend - Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (SVB) had scrambled to raise money to plug a loss from the sale of assets affected by higher interest rates. Word of the troubles led customers to race to withdraw funds, leading to the crisis
• On Monday, President Biden tried to calm the waters - Americans should "rest assured that our banking system is safe", he said. "We'll do whatever is needed." He also said he'd seek to hold those responsible to account
• And US regulators has been working to restore confidence - they unveiled a new way to give banks access to emergency funds, making it easier for banks to borrow from it in a crisis
• On Monday, the markets reacted nervously - shares in regional US banks tumbled. First Republic bank, which is based in San Francisco, plunged roughly 70% before trading was halted. In Europe, bank shares dropped sharply reflecting fears of wider instability

Jeremy Gahagan
Live reporter

Welcome back to our live coverage.

We'll soon know the latest US inflation figures which are due to be released at 12:30 GMT as the world's markets tackle the fallout from the collapse of two US banks.

Global banking shares remain under pressure as fears persist over the fallout from the collapse of US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), followed days later by that of the New York-based Signature Bank.

Today, Asia-Pacific shares have tumbled, while European markets have opened slightly higher, though shares of banks have fallen again.

SVB's collapse is the largest failure of a US bank since the financial crisis of 2008.

I'll be hosting along with Alexandra Fouché, and writers André Rhoden-Paul and Sam Hancock.

We're pausing our live page coverage of the collapse of the US-based Silicon Valley Bank.

Here are some of the biggest developments:

• Two banks collapsed this weekend - Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank - leading customers to rush to withdraw funds, sparking the crisis.
• President Biden has reassured Americans the US banking system is "safe" and the government has pledged to guarantee all deposits at both banks.
• The collapses have spooked markets - shares in regional US banks plummeted, while European bank shares also dropped.

This live page has been brought to you by Gareth Evans, Nathan Williams, Marianna Brady, Beth Timmins, Natalie Sherman, Madeline Halpert, Adam Durbin and Gem O'Reilly.

You can read more about the banking crisis here.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The South By Southwest Interactive conference is typically a spectacle of lavish spending by technology companies – small ones hoping to make a name for themselves and big ones flexing their financial muscles.

On Friday night, video streaming company Roku rented out a building in downtown Austin and turned it into a fantasyland promoting its original content, complete with costumed hosts, elaborately designed rooms and specially crafted cocktails at an open bar.

It made for a bit of a jarring contrast for guests to be surrounded by such opulence the day that news spread about the run on Silicon Valley Bank – and that Roku itself had $487m deposited in accounts there. It was money that was very much at risk.

SVB’s financial troubles were the talk of the weekend at South-by, as the regulars call the conference, with attendees comparing notes – and their monetary exposure – and trading whispered rumours about who was in the deepest trouble.

Bradley Tusk, who founded and runs a venture capital fund, says he was among those scrambling to withdraw his money from SVB and that the entire crisis cast a shadow over the first few days of the conference.

“Even if you think that there's no actual logical reason behind this, you don't want to be the last one holding the bag,” he said.

He says if the Biden administration hadn’t stepped in to guarantee bank funds, startups across the US could have collapsed, taking down more banks with them.

“It was a very stressful weekend,” he said. “And I think today is the first time that everyone is breathing a little bit easier.”

He noted, however, that he still hasn’t received confirmation that his SVB account withdrawal has been processed.

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

I just bumped into the Sam Liang, co-founder and CEO of Otter AI - the automated transcription service. He said Otter had millions in SVB:

“We were pretty worried over the weekend… we were watching the news all the time… I checked on Google like 20 times,” he said.

He says the company had “a few million dollars in the bank.” He has managed to get a chunk out by cashier’s cheque just now. He said he might come back later today to get the rest.

He says is is “grateful” for the government’s action.

I asked him why he thought the government should have stepped in to protect successful companies like his:

“There are thousands of companies that depend on SVB,” he said.

“If they can’t get their money, it’s going to destroy Silicon Valley.”

Image source, BBC News

Sell-offs of bank shares weighed on financial markets today as authorities tried to quell fears about the stability of the financial system.

First Republic, which is headquartered in San Francisco and caters to wealthy individuals at risk of suddenly shifting their money, saw its shares tumble more than 60%.

Other smaller and mid-sized banks were hammered, while even bigger banks seen as less at risk from a crisis such as JPMorgan Chase ended lower.

But overall it was not a bloodbath.

The Dow closed down 0.3% and the S&P 500 dipped 0.15%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq traded 0.45% higher.

Dharshini David
Economics Correspondent

Bonds, used by governments to borrow from financial markets, rarely make headlines – unless something's seriously up. The interest rate they have to offer to lure investors to buy them echoes expectations of the interest rates set by central banks.

But the collapse of SVB is causing many in America to adjust those expectations. Just days ago, investors assumed that taming inflation was the Federal Reserve’s priority and that interest rates would be hiked again this month.

SVB's collapse was precipitated by the effect of rising interest rates on its investments. And so now, as investors wake up to the risks rising rates pose to some banks fortunes, they're increasingly expecting central bankers to pause and instead reinforce stability for the financial system.

That retreat in expectations has prompted a corresponding fall in the return on bonds, the biggest since 1987.

Such volatility can also signal a drop in investor confidence, rightly or wrongly. Investors aren't expecting a rerun of the 2008 financial crisis – but they’re uneasy over what may yet be uncovered.

And now on to Signature Bank:

• Founded in 2001 and based in New York, it was the 29th largest bank in the US at the end of last year.
• It was known for catering to commercial property firms - another sector under stress.
• It also banked some of the largest crypto brokers and worked with clients such as Coinbase and Circle.
• Its clients included Sweden’s largest pension fund, Alecta and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.

Let's start with Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB:

• SVB was founded in 1983 and had deep roots in the Bay Area, where it was a big lender to local sectors, like the wine industry and the tech world. Its clients included startups such as vegan food giant Beyond Meat, networking firm Cisco, Vox Media and software firm DocuSign.
• It opened its first overseas offices in 2004, and expanded rapidly over the last decade, riding the tech boom to become America's 16th largest bank. Many analysts thought it was in solid shape - it made the Forbes list of best banks just this year.
• SVB made money providing loans and other basic banking services, as well as through fund and asset management services, investing in firms alongside venture capital companies and underwriting tech IPOs.
• Around 40% of UK biotech firms, which develop many of the country's medicines, were banking with SVB’s British section. Due to the multiple years it can take to develop a drug, early-stage biotech firms often heavily rely on start-up friendly banks like SVB.

Michelle Fleury
BBC World News Correspondent

The US Federal Reserve’s next interest rate setting meeting is on March 21-22.

The Fed was expected to pick up the pace of rate hikes following comments last week by Jerome Powell, the head of America’s central bank.

But for some on Wall Street, the tumult in the banking sector in the wake of problems at Silicon Valley Bank has changed that calculation.

Economists at Goldman Sachs no longer expect the Fed to raise rates next week. Before this week, they had forecast a quarter point increase.

In a note to clients, they wrote:

Even after US authorities moved to reassure Americans their money is safe, concerns remain that regional banks with a high share of uninsured deposits could see customers pull their money out.

So for now, analysts at Goldman Sachs are betting the Federal Reserve will prioritise financial stability fears over its fight against inflation.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

Panic has unfolded at SVB at a time of mass social media, when vast sums of money can be moved at the click of a mouse or touch of a smartphone.

For banks, it creates the potential for big movements in deposit bases in real time, making crises of confidence significantly more difficult to manage.

We've already seen this change play out in the stock market, where for a while all attention was on meme stocks, like GameStop, with shares rising and falling based on Reddit sentiment.

Imagine the 2008 financial crisis with TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp - and how easy it would be to spread rumours from seemingly credible posters.

Let's take a step back, for those just joining us.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was shut down by regulators who seized its assets on Friday.

It came after the bank was scrambling to raise money to plug a loss from the sale of assets affected by higher interest rates.

Word of the troubles led customers to race to withdraw funds, and ultimately to its collapse.

On Sunday, US authorities also moved to take over another institution - Signature Bank of New York. It had many clients involved in crypto and was seen as the institution most vulnerable to a similar bank run after SVB.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Ben Kaufman, chief executive of toy retailer Camp, said the US government's move to secure deposits at SVB, where his firm had about 85% of its cash, was a huge relief.His company drew attention last week, when it put out a plea to customers to buy its toys, citing the SVB meltdown and offering a discount using the code bankrun.

Camp ultimately sold more than 100,000 products in 48 hours - as much business as it typically does in a month, Mr Kaufman told the BBC.

"We knew that this would resolve itself somehow but we knew we needed that short-term liquidity and our customers provided it for us," he said.

"For us, it was very helpful," he added, of the government's guarantee for unsecured deposits. "I'm not an economist so I don't know the ramifications of this but I know that as a business operator we rely on the cash that we have in the bank."

Image source, Ben Kaufman

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

I’m at a branch of Silicon Valley Bank in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley. It looks less like a bank branch and more a sleepy office space tucked away in a thicket of redwoods in the heart of techland.

It’s a plush office aimed at rich clientele.

There are about 25 people waiting in line here - and they are slowly entering the building one at a time. One customer told me the bank is not allowing wire transfers at the branch but they are issuing cashier’s cheques to speed up the process.

Financial markets in the US have been jittery for months and the collapse of SVB led to big falls on the main stock indexes last week.

But in the US the main indexes remain relatively calm at the moment.

Though investors are dumping shares of some banks, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq have been flat or positive for much of the day.

That could be a sign that many investors expect this crisis to remain contained.