The stock market endured a challenging 2022 due to geopolitical headwinds, high inflation, and the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hikes. However, progress has been made in bringing inflation down from its high of 9.1% year-over-year rise in June. The consumer price index (CPI) fell for the sixth consecutive month in December. It increased 6.5% year-over-year and declined 0.1% sequentially.
With the central bank raising interest rates to the highest level since 2008 and minutes from its policy meeting showing that it remains committed to bringing inflation down to the 2% target, a pause in interest rate hikes is highly unlikely this year.
