The morning, the Consumer Price Index came in slightly hotter than expected. Headline inflation rose 3.4% on the year which topped the Dow Jones estimate of 3.2%. Month-to-month, the CPI rose 0.3%, also higher than the forecast of 0.2%. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices (which the Fed prefers to monitor), came in higher than expected. It climbed 3.9% on the year, above the estimate of 3.8%. For the month, the 0.3% gain matched forecasts. Below, you can see inflation’s path over the past several years. Note how the decline in headline inflation has stalled out since June of last year (dark blue solid line)…
