Has inflation finally peaked? – CNN
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New York
CNN
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It may be a new year. But for investors, consumers and the Federal Reserve, inflation remains a major economic concern, just as it was in 2022.
With that in mind, Wall Street will intensely scrutinize the December Consumer Price Index data for December that is set to be released Thursday. The hope is that the pace of price increases will continue to slow.
Consumer prices rose 7.1% year over year through November. That is still a historically high increase, but it’s a notable drop from the peak price increases of 9.1% back in June. It was also the smallest gain since December 2021’s 7% annual jump in prices.
The hope is that inflation pressures will cool even more dramatically as the year progresses. It’s probably a pipe dream to expect that price increases will fall anytime soon to the 2% to 3% annual level that the Fed would feel most comfortable with. But as long as CPI keeps falling, the market will probably cheer.
“Inflation will continue to roll over. We believe inflation peaked in June,” said Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief investment officer with Laffer Tengler Investments, in a report.
Tengler added that “the rise and fall of inflation is mostly symmetrical. It took 16 months to peak and now we expect it will take a like amount of time to get to …….