Aug 092018
 

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By G. Steven Bray

Other than the short tantrum mortgage rates performed a couple weeks ago, the market has been in a summer slumber. And even that tantrum didn’t take rates out of the range they’ve inhabited the last few months. This week’s economic headliner could change that, but I doubt it.

Friday brings the release of the all-important Consumer Price Index (CPI), the granddaddy of inflation measures. Wholesale inflation, wage inflation, and oil prices all ticked higher earlier this year, and many analysts expected consumer inflation would follow in short order. We got a hint in that direction a couple months ago, which brought markets to attention.

However, since then, these other inflation measures have relaxed again. Wholesale inflation, released yesterday, and wage inflation, as indicated by the big jobs report last week, were flat. Oil prices, too, have flattened, and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, the broader inflation measure favored by the Fed, slipped back below 2%.

So, all eyes are on the CPI tomorrow. Given the weakening of the other measures, a reading that moves the index higher could make rates jump again. Unfortunately, a moderate reading probably won’t lead to much lower rates but will instead just let rates continue to slumber in their current range.

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