Consu🃏mer prices in the U.S. climbed more than economists expected🅷 last month, as food, housing, and medical costs surged. 

Headline inflation as tracked by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% in September, up from August's 0.1% gain, and slightly higher than the 0.3% economists had expected, according to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Comparedꦰ to the same period in 2021, the index was up 8.2%, down from 8.3% in August as energy prices eased off their 🌼highs. That rate was also higher than economists anticipated. 

Excluding food and energy prices, the "core" rate of inflation rose 0.6ꦯ% last month, as it did in August, and was up 6.6% from the same period a year earlier, accelerating from a🦹n annual rate of 6.3% in August to a new 40-year high.

Stocks tumbled on the heels of the report’s release, with the S&P 50⛄0 falling over 2% at the start of trading.

Where Costs Climbed Most

Rising prices for housing, food, and medical care contributed the most to September’s monthly rise, and were partially offset by a nearly 5% drop in gas prices. Food costs were up 0.8% in﷽ September, as “food at home” and grocery prices surged. 

Energy prices broadly declined 2.1% as gas prices 💫eased off their highs, but natural gas and electricity prices increased. Prices for clothes and used vehicles were also among those that declined.

Implications for Fed Rate Hikes

Today’s hotter-than-expected consumer inflation reading could dash hopes for a slowdown in the Fed’s 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:tightening path. Fed funds futures data published by the shows traders are pricing in an over 90% chance of another 75 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:basis point (bp) rate hike at the next policy meeting of the FOMC in early November.

The Fed has raised interest rates by a cumulative 300 bps since March in an effort to tame soaring inflation that is running near a 40-year high. Fed policymakers are anticipating a year-end target 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:federal funds rate of roughly 4.5%, or 1.5% above ꧋its current level.