Financial markets investors worry the U.S. is on the brink of an economic downturn as central bankers in Jackson Hole reaffirmed their determination to raise interest rates to bring inflation under co...
Tag: Inflation Figures/Price Indices
Inflation falls for first time in more than two years, key U.S. gauge shows, due to sinking gas prices
The numbers: A key gauge of U.S. inflation fell 0.1% in July thanks to tumbling gasoline prices, marking the first decline in more than two years and giving Americans some relief from a rapidly rising...
Opinion: Stop misreading the Fed: It’s not getting cold feet about wrestling inflation to the ground
The Federal Reserve isn’t as mysterious as it’s made out to be. It’s not hiding coded messages in its communications. It’s not using obscure metaphors that seem to say one thing but actually mean the ...
Stocks Could Keep Rising If the Fed Shows Restraint
Text size As the market rebounds, speculative stocks are stirring. For proof, consider Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF, up about 40% since mid-June. David Swanson/Reuters/Alamy What bear market? Stoc...
Opinion: Inflation report brings 2 pieces of good news for retirees and retirement savers
Retirees and those seeking secure income got two items of very good news this week, though you may only have heard about one. July’s inflation came in below fears (although a debate now rages on what ...
Dollar Softens as CPI Data Changes Fed Rate-Hike Expectations
Updated Aug. 10, 2022 1:36 pm ET | WSJ Pro 13:24 ET – Weaker-than-expected CPI has changed the market’s view of the Fed’s rate-increase trajectory over the next year or so, Bruce Clark, senior m...
Why home prices can stay high, complicating the Fed’s battle against inflation
Sky-high housing prices still threaten to complicate the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight, even as America’s market for single-family homes shows signs of cooling in response to sharply higher intere...
Stocks rally like it’s ‘mission accomplished’ — but investors urge caution as Nasdaq enters bull market
Investors might want to keep their guard up as the stock market continues its rally. “The market has kind of gone back to sleep” in appearing to think, “all right, mission accomplished, inflation’s in...
Don’t be fooled by a drop in U.S. headline inflation. Markets will be attuned to another figure on Wednesday.
Traders, investors and economists are all counting on Wednesday’s consumer-price index report to show a decline in the annual headline U.S. inflation rate for July. But there’s another figure buried i...
‘The real mortgage rate is a negative number.’ As inflation stubbornly sits at a 40-year high, do current mortgage rates look better than they seem?
What is the so-called ‘real mortgage rate’ and does it matter? Getty Images/iStockphoto I write about mortgage rates every week, but recently, I’ve heard some sources chattering about what’s called th...
Will the stock-market rally turn into a selloff? This bond-market gauge could tip investors off
Now that the Federal Reserve appears to have abandoned its forward guidance tool in favor of being “data dependent” to help inform its future path for rates, investors should keep an eye on this gauge...
‘Savings are gonna run out’: Already battered by high inflation, Fed’s rate hike will hit lower-income and rural Americans hard
The Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points on Wednesday in an effort to temper the rising costs of consumer goods and services. While economists say raising the interest r...
U.S. inflation surges again and stays at 40-year high, key price gauge shows
The numbers: A key gauge of U.S. inflation rose a sharp 1% in June, led by higher fuel prices, in a sign that price pressures in the economy are still intense and unlikely to relent quickly. The incre...
Elon Musk says inflation may have peaked. Bill Ackman agrees, but says the Fed is still making a mistake.
The market has been in full-on party mode in the 48 hours since Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was shifting to a data-dependent stance for deciding interest rates. That’s best seen in t...
Opinion: The Fed vowed to crush inflation with higher rates. Then the stock market rallied. Here’s why. (It’s not good news.)
‘‘We are now at levels broadly in line with our estimates of neutral interest rates, and after front-loading our hiking cycle until now we will be much more data-dependent going forward.’’ The Federal...
A Fed Rate-Hike Surprise Could Be a Problem for Stocks
Text size The Federal Reserve continues to play catch-up in its fight against inflation, and there’s no doubt that interest rates are headed higher after its meeting ends on Wednesday. Chip Somo...
There Are Signs Inflation May Have Peaked, but Can It Come Down Fast Enough?
Growing signs that price pressures are easing suggest that June’s distressingly high 9.1% increase in consumer prices will probably be the peak. But even if inflation indeed comes down, economists see...
TIPS, I Bonds Are Smart Ways to Buy Inflation Protection
Illustration by Liam Eisenberg Text size As a consumer, it is almost impossible to escape the ravages of inflation, which rose at a 9.1% clip in the 12 months ended June, based on the U.S. Consumer Pr...
When will inflation peak? Consumers and economists see light at the end of the tunnel (but it’s a long tunnel)
Consumers think inflation still has to boil over before it cools, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest read on people’s economic expectations. Inflation hit 9.1% on the year in J...
Fed’s Bullard Raises Target for Year-End Funds Rate
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Friday that unexpectedly high inflation calls for a more aggressive path of short-term interest rate rises this year. Inflation “has come...
75 or 100 basis points? Lost in market debate over Fed’s next rate hike is ‘how long inflation stays at these levels’
Debate has been simmering over whether Federal Reserve policy makers will raise the fed-funds rate by three-quarters of a percentage point later this month, as they did in June, or step up their infla...
Jeremy Siegel on Why Today’s Inflation Is Different From the 1970s
Illustration by Elias Stein Text size This isn’t a rerun of the 1970s, argues Jeremy Siegel, the author of the seminal Stocks for the Long Run and a professor emeritus of finance at the University of ...
Fed Finally Is Focusing on the Big Picture in Inflation Fight
Text size A modest decline in gasoline prices has raised some hope that inflation is abating. Gene J. Puskar/AP/Shutterstock “Don’t fight the Fed” has long been the mantra of investors. As the U.S. ce...
U.S. stock futures inch up ahead of CPI data that could show inflation at 40-year high
U.S. equity futures inched higher on Wednesday, though trading was timid ahead of U.S. data that could show stubborn inflation forcing a faster pace of rate rises from the Federal Reserve. How are sto...
U.S. June inflation report circulating on internet Tuesday is fake, Bureau of Labor Statistics says
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday that a release circulating online purporting to show June inflation data, due for release on Wednesday morning, was a forgery. “We’re aware of a fake ...
Stock market faces inflation test Wednesday: Here are ‘good, bad and ugly’ scenarios
Expectation for U.S. inflation have fallen over the past month thanks largely to the drop in industrial and agricultural commodity prices. This trend has shown up in the Federal Reserve Bank of New Yo...
Opinion: The Federal Reserve’s Powell has a lot of explaining to do
The Federal Reserve runs a symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, every year. It’s a rite of passage for many in central banking, in monetary economics and for Fed-watching. Sometimes there is a key Fed ...