Friday Briefing: The inflation battle may not be fully won yet

Friday Briefing

Hopes for another jumbo-cut from the Fed were dashed on Thursday (10 October) after the latest US CPI release showed inflationary pressures remain in the world’s largest economy.

Inflation slowed to its lowest pace in over three years last month, rising at an annual rate of 2.4%, figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed.  The headline reading, which was down from 2.5% in August, came in slightly higher than economists' expectations of 2.3%, however.  Meanwhile, the so-called ‘core' index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose at an annual rate of 3.3%, as both headline and core CPI failed to drop on a monthly basis.  This is unlikely to stand in the way of further rate cuts in November, with the core measure having come down from 3.9%...