Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Explain This 'Inflation' Anomaly...
Having slowed for two straight months, whisper numbers predicted a slightly hotter than expected September CPI (edging up to 5.4% YoY, slightly above the consensus of 5.3%) on the back of a re-intensification of supply-chain bottlenecks due to a combination of natural disasters and COVID disruptions in the US and Asia kept pressure on manufactured goods in September.
Headline CPI did indeed come hotter than expected (+0.4% MoM vs +0.3% exp) with the YoY spike edging back up to +5.4%...That is equal to its highest since July 2008.
Source: Bloomberg
Services prices rebounded while goods costs slowed their YoU growth very modestly (but remains at highest since 1981)...
Source: Bloomberg
Fuel Oil and Gas Utility prices dominated the MoM gains with Used Car prices actually dropping modestly (which is odd given that Manheim used car prices are at record highs)...
Dear Bureau of Labor Statistics, explain this!!
Let us guess - hedonics? Or we would need a PhD to really understand?
Core CPI's recent slowing picked up in September with a 0.2% MoM jump (vs +0.1% exp) leaving YoY flat around +4.0%.
Source: Bloomberg
Housing inflation is really ramping up with the shelter index increased over the month, rising 0.4 percent. The index for rent rose 0.5 percent in September, while the index for owners' equivalent rent rose 0.4 percent over the month.
Shelter inflation jumped 3.14% Y/Y vs 2.84% in August, highest since Feb 2020
Rent inflation was up to 2.43% from 2.12% in August, highest since Nov 2020
Oh, and Dear Bureau of Labor Statistics, explain this one too!!
Real-time data from places like apartment list suggests OER should be 6% now...
Finally, we note that the index for airline fares continued to fall sharply, decreasing 6.4 percent over the month after falling 9.1 percent in August.
But, but, but... the recovery? And Vaccines?