Reuters
Fed’s ‘transitory’ inflation plot thickens again with rate at 30-year high
Inflation pushed more broadly through the economy in October again challenging the Federal Reserve’s outlook for only “transitory” price increases, offsetting recent wage hikes in a blow to consumers, and prompting investors to boost bets the central bank will raise interest rates sooner than expected. Yields on two-year Treasury notes, a proxy for the outlook for the overnight interest rate set by the Fed, jumped 6 basis points, the most in three weeks and among the largest daily increases in the last year and a half, to 0.485% on Wednesday after the release of data showing consumer prices rose by 6.2% in October versus the year before. That was the largest one-year jump in prices in 30 years and applied across staples like food, energy and rent, as well as to items like automobiles where the Fed has expected the pace of price increases to ease alongside pandemic-driven “bottlenecks” in global supply chains.
