Will CPI Matter Again?
By:
Matthew Graham
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At times over the past 2 years, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been the most important economic report on any given month and has had a bigger impact on bonds than the mighty jobs report. Now that job creation has settled back into the 200k-ish range, it has been more tradeable. Meanwhile, CPI has failed to inspire on several recent occasions. Will this week prove to be another example? Odds are that the lack of inspiration had more to do with the numbers coming in close to consensus. If this week's numbers are far enough from forecasts, there's no reason to doubt CPI's market moving power--especially with the uptick in energy costs and the Fed on deck next week.