Neoliberal

It’s the Wall Street Journal, so it has a paywall. Their news (which is what this is) is generally pretty good, though I still maintain their opinion articles are usually garbage.

The content is below:

U.S. inflation slowed in May, extending an easing in price increases after a hot start to the year.

The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and service costs across the economy, rose 3.3% annually last month, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Core prices that exclude volatile food and energy items climbed 3.4% from a year earlier.

Stock futures jumped after the report, while Treasury yields fell.

Wednesday’s inflation report, which came hours before a Federal Reserve meeting is set to conclude, was better than many investors’ expectations.

In April, prices rose 3.4% from a year earlier.

Economists and investors have eagerly awaited the report for a fresh glimpse into when the Federal Reserve might begin easing monetary policy that shapes mortgage rates, credit-card interest and other borrowing costs across the economy.

Few on Wall Street or in Washington believe the central bank will cut rates at the meeting that concludes Wednesday or a subsequent meeting in July.

But a well-behaved May inflation report is a likely prerequisite for the Fed to consider lowering interest rates after that, as officials have said they want to see a series of readings that rebuilds their confidence inflation will head lower. A hot reading, on the other hand, would complicate efforts to cut rates without evidence of economic weakness.

Investors are betting that less restrictive policy will provide more fuel to an artificial-intelligence-focused stock market that has already powered through the highest rates in more than two decades. It might also release a pressure valve for consumers who have faced higher costs to take out loans as well as persistent price hikes.

After inflation held stubbornly high to start 2024, a string of data in recent weeks suggested that the world’s largest economy has resumed its gradual slowdown without painful ruptures to the labor market. Many domestic companies are muscling ahead of foreign counterparts. The U.S. unemployment rate has been 4% or lower for 30 consecutive months. Wage gains continue.

Even so, many Americans are gloomy about the state of the economy, thanks largely to the cumulative toll of yearslong price pressures.

Americans’ short-term inflation expectations ticked lower in May, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, while more households grew optimistic about their financial situations. Small businesses’ optimism also rose to its highest level of the year, according to a National Federation of Independent Business index.

Write to David Uberti at [email protected]