澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网🌱: Inflation at 40-year highs, w🏅e hardly knew you.

In the five months through November, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased at an 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:annualized rate of 2.5%, only a little above the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Federal Reserve's 2% long-term inflation target.

The rapid slowing from an annualized rate of more than 10% in the seven months through June is the result of lower energy and grain prices and the declines in the cost of other key commodities like plastics and lumber, as well as shipping.

Federal Reserve officials have downplayed these developments, opting to focus on the continued inflationary threat and their 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:determination to stamp it out. After raising the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Fed's benchmark rate from near zero to nearly 4.5% in the course of 2022 and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:preparing markets for more hikes, they likely view hawkish talk as a low-cos﷽t restraint on inflation expectations.

Consumers also remain unconvinced, with 65% in a recent Gallup poll predicting high rather than "reasonable" inflation in 2023. People with lower incomes especially continue to struggle with the cumulative toll of recent price hikes on necessities. With prices at the pump down sharply, inflation spotters have moved on to gripe about those of a Manhattan cup of coffee and wholesale eggs.

Financial markets, on the other hand, are treating the price surge in the first half of last year as old news while giving more credence to the encouraging recent data. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Breakeven spreads reflecting the market's expectations for inflation have shrunk for months, and narrowed further Friday after 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:December's strong jobs report showed wage gains moderating. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Treasury bonds, beat up in 2022 as inflation spiked, perked up this week. The 10-year Tr🍸easury note's yield dropped from 3.88% to 3.57% over the new year's first four trading sessions. The S&P 500 index rallied 2.3% Friday.

Investors welcomed the news that U.S. workers' average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in December, below expectations for an increase of 0.4%. Just as importantly, the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised November's average hourly earnings gain to 0.4% from the 0.6% reported previously. Between the lower December number and the November revision, the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:year-over-year (YOY) gain in average hourly earnings fell from 5.1% before the report to 4.6% after. Average weekly earnings declined for a third straight month as a result of a shorter average work week.

Federal Reserve Chair 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Jerome Powell has said he is particularly focused on inflation in core services prices excluding housing in explaining the central bank's continuing hawkish tilt. "This may be the most important category for understanding the future evolution of core inflation. Because wages make up the largest cost in delivering these services, the labor market holds the key to understanding inflation in this category," Powell said in a Nov. 30 speech.

November inflation data released two weeks later showed the price of services excluding housing and energy rose just 0.1%, slowing from gains of 0.4% in October and 0.8% in September in another sign of easing price pressures. Federal Reserve officials have worried higher prices could spur wage demands, triggering a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:wage-price spiral. While that phenomenon contributed to the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:stagflation of the 1970s, today's lower labor union participation rate and the diminished collective bargaining power of workers make a repeat less likely.

The recent inflation slowdown could prove short-lived, of course. The job market's strength will keep the pressure on employers to bid wages up to reduce a historic backlog of vacancies. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:China's reopening after🌺 three years of COVID-19 lockdowns may boost long-terꦿm demand for energy and other commodities, lifting prices.

U.S. inflation hasn't "turned the corner yet," said Gita Gopinath, the No. 2 official at the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:International Monetary Fund (IMF), in an interview published Friday, citing the strong job market as a risk.

Still, until the data or the news provide evidence of a trend change, the stock and bond markets may keep discounting inflation's staying power.