Article content
(Bloomberg) — Here are the key takeaways from the US CPI report for August released Wednesday:
- CPI rose 0.6% from the prior month, the most in more than a year, and was up 3.7% from a year earlier, more than expected.
- Core prices (which exclude energy and food) climbed 0.3% on a monthly basis — more than forecast — and were up 4.3% year on year. In other words, inflation is still running warmer than the Fed would like.
- Overall, the single biggest contributor to the monthly gain in CPI was gasoline, which accounted for more than half of the increase. Shelter costs also kept pressure up, advancing for the 40th straight month and bypassing economist expectations for this category to slow. There were also notable increases in airline fares, auto-insurance costs, new cars and food prices.
- Stock futures and Treasuries initially slid, but then recouped losses. Contracts on the S&P 500 were flat as of 9:05 a.m. after dropping as much as 0.4%, while two-year yields were down about 2 basis points, at 5%. Interest-rate futures suggested that bets continue to be divided on whether the Federal Reserve will hike one more time this year.
- The report complicates the picture for Fed policymakers, who meet later this month to set rate policy. While they’re likely to look through a temporary bump in energy prices, the shelter component is still running hot and gains across other categories could give them pause. The broader economic picture could also support another hike: The labor market, while showing cracks on the margin, remains tight.
- The CPI report has been a challenging one for the Biden administration to message. Consumers feel higher prices at the pump and in grocery stores- Republicans have leapt on that. Even though inflation is broadly out of the administration’s hands and one for monetary policy, we’re coming up on an election year so can expect more political wrangling over the CPI report going forward.
Article content
Read More: Here Are the Latest Inflation Buzzwords You Need to Know
To access the full TOPLive blog, click here to read on the Terminal and here online.
—With assistance from Christopher Anstey.