The Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) in September, led by higher housing and energy costs, came higher than analysts had expected, adding to concer♎ns about the possibility of another interest rate hike by the Federal Reser🐻ve.

The CPI data released Thursday showed that prices in September increased 3.7% year-over-year and 0.4% on a monthly basis, slightly higher than the 3.6% annual, and 0.3% monthly, pace of inflation that analysts had forecast. The Sep𒁃tember annual reading m🙈atches August’s year-over-year pace of 3.7%, but is a drop from August’s month-over-month increase of 0.6%.

Increased housing costs were a l🍌eading contributor to higher prices, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, making up more than half of the monthly rise in inflation, while gasoline costs a🐽lso pushed inflation higher, with the energy index rising 1.5% over the month. Prices of food, both at home and outside, also rose.

Core CPI, which strips food and energy costs, showed a 0.3% increase in prices on a monthly basis in September, the 💎same reading as August, and a 4.1% annual increase in core CPI, down from August’s 4.3% year-over﷽-year core reading. The core results were in line with analyst projections.

What's In Store For Rates?

Stock futures gave back some of their earlier gains while Treasury yields rose on the news as market participants weighed the impact that the latest inflation data could have on the Fed's decision-making process. The Fed has been raising rates steadily to contain inflationary pressures.

Despite the higher-than-expected headline inflation numbers, market participants still believe the U.S. central bank is likely to keep its benchmark Federal Funds rate at its current range of 5.25% to 5.5% when it deliberates its next interest rate decision on Nov. 1. The CME’s FedWatch Tool, which forecasts rate hikes based on fed futures trading data, was showing a 87.4% probability that the Fed would hold rates steady, compared with 12.6% chance of a 25 basis point hike.

Federal officials are looking at the consumer price index, along with 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:other data on inflation and economic conditions, before making a decision on interest rates. After the Fed kept the federal funds rate steady at its September meeting, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated th💟at officials would continue to monitor data before deciding on their next course of action.

Since then, some Fed officials have said that 澳洲幸运🀅5官方开奖结果体彩网:interest rates appear to be suffiಞciently high and more time is needed to see the effects of the Fed’s interest rate hike campaign in an effort to tame surging inflation. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:The Feꦺderal R꧟eserve has raised rates from near zero in March 2022 to their current level, a 22-year high, by hiking it over🌠 the course of 11-straight meetings before holdiꦯng the rate steady at its September meeting.