Wall Street will be on high alert on Thursday when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its latest consumer price index report, as the data could guide the Federal Reserve’s next moves in terms of monetary policy and, therefore, the timing of the first interest rate cut.
December headline CPI is seen increasing 0.2% m-o-m, pushing the annual rate to 3.2% from 3.1% – a setback for the Fed, whose goal is to return inflation to 2.0% over the long term. The core gauge, for its part, is forecast to have risen 0.3% m-o-m, with the 12-month related reading easing to 3.8% from 4.0% previously.
