CPI tracking 5/15/2024

In economic news, the US consumer price index advanced 0.3% sequentially last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The pace decelerated from March's 0.4% growth rate, which was also Wall Street's consensus, according to a Bloomberg-compiled survey. Annually, inflation slowed to 3.4% from 3.5%, in line with analysts' expectations.

"The April consumer price index is a small step in the right direction but it doesn't warrant any change to our forecast for the first rate cut by the Federal Reserve to occur in September followed by another in December," Oxford Economics said in a note.

The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee is widely expected to maintain interest rates at its June and July meetings, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. In a bid to tame inflation, the FOMC tightened monetary policy by 525 basis points from March 2022 through July 2023. It has kept interest rates unchanged since then, with its latest pause coming earlier this month.

On Tuesday, government data showed US producer prices rebounded above market expectations on a sequential basis in April, while wholesale costs logged the highest annual increase in a year.