S&P 500 posts biggest drop in 50 sessions after hot CPI

The S&P 500 broke its longest winning stretch of the year on Wednesday, falling 86.51 points, or 1.11%, to 7,718.94, its steepest single-day decline since July 29 and the first move of 1% or more in more than 50 sessions. The trigger was September CPI at 3.7% year over year, above the 3.6% consensus and up from 3.4% in August, which re-opened the question the market had largely shelved since September's hike: whether the tightening cycle has actually peaked. Read the tape closely and this was not a broad panic. It was a repair of the AI and megacap concentration trade, paywalled into a defensive rotation, and it tells you far more about positioning than it does about the health of corporate…