Fed chair Jerome Powell just received ‘the best present he could ask for’ – and…

US prices fell in November for the first in more than three-and-a-half years, pushing the annual increase in inflation further below 3 per cent, and boosting financial market expectations of an interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve next March. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that US consumer prices slid 0.1 per cent last month from October and rose 2.6 per cent from November 2022. The month-over-month drop was the largest since April 2020 when the economy was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. US Federal Reserve Board chair Jerome Powell. Credit: AP Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called…