The Labor Department recently reported an 8.3% year-over-year increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI) in August. The core CPI, which excludes the highly volatile energy and food prices, increased 6.3% year-over-year, up from 5.9% in both June and July, signaling the stubbornness of the inflation the Fed has been striving to tame.
The newly released inflation data has primarily hurt investor optimism over easing inflation and less aggressive interest rate hikes. The CPI data has weighed heavily on investor sentiments, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones declining 4.3% and 3.9%, respectively, in the last trading session on fears of a severe-than-anticipated economic slowdown.
