The latest U.S. inflation data shows that consumer prices continued to climb despite expectations of a slowdown. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) summary released Thursday shows an 8.2% increase in the year through September, and the core index had the fastest annual increase since 1982.
September CPI data worse than expected, report signals aggressive Fed rate hike on the horizon, global markets quiver.
The U.S. inflation numbers for September are in, and the inflation rate, or CPI, is worse than expected. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the inflation rate is worse than expected, released on October 13, the report shows that “the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.4 percent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis after increasing 0.1 percent in August“. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report adds:
Over the past 12 months, the index for all items rose 8.2 percent before seasonal adjustment.
The latest CPI statistics also show that “the index for all items except food and energy rose 0.6 percent in September, the same as in August“. Immediately after the report’s release, the four major U.S. stock indexes fell significantly, with the Nasdaq suffering the most losses, the crypto-currency markets and precious metals followed suit, led by the stock markets plummeting in value against the greenback after the CPI report was released.
US #inflation hotter than expected. September CPI rose 8.2% YoY vs 8.1% expected. Core CPI accelerated to 6.6% YoY, highest since 1982. pic.twitter.com/WLTqzd6o1M
– Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) October 13, 2022
Precious metals such as gold and silver were hit Thursday, with gold losing 1.37% by troy ounce and silver 1.68%. Platinum and palladium also recorded losses between 1.59% and 2.91%. Thursday’s measures further show that the cryptoeconomy also suffered heavy losses, as the total market capitalization of all existing digital assets slipped below $900 billion.
The global market capitalization of crypto-currencies stands at about $886.38 billion, a drop of almost 4% in the last 24 hours. Of course, worse-than-expected inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI report has investors believing that an aggressive Federal Reserve will raise the federal funds rate by another 75 basis points (bps). According to Investing.com’s Twitter account, the “Fed funds futures” are moving and now there is a 100% chance of a 75 bp Fed rate hike at its next meeting following the CPI data“.
⚠️BREAKING:
*FED FUNDS FUTURES NOW PRICING 100% CHANCE OF 75 BPS FED RATE HIKE AT NOV. MEETING FOLLOWING CPI DATA pic.twitter.com/u8ghCxq96s
– Investing.com (@Investingcom) October 13, 2022