US Inflation Holds Steady

The expected uptick in the rate of inflation in the US appears not to have materialised this month according the latest round of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data just released for the month of September.

The year on year CPI has remained static at the 1.7% level, there was an anticipation among market analysts that this would fall slightly to 1.6% today. If anything the month on month numbers suggest that there is some upward pressure on price inflation, the latest reading of this metric is showing a pick up of 0.1% compared to the drop of -0.2% in August, the expectation here was for a flat reading of 0.0%. The actual Consumer Price Index is now reading at 238.03, up from 237.85 when measured on a non seasonally adjusted basis, there was an expectation that this would stand at 237.97 today.

It is very much the same story with the Core CPI figures, once food and energy are stripped out the September CPI reads at 1.7% year on year, this is the same reading taken in August and was very much anticipated today. The month on month number however is showing a slight increase to 0.1% from 0.0% in August, the expectation for this number was that it would rise to 0.2% in this latest release. The absolute Core seasonally adjusted CPI level now stands at 238.68, slightly up from the 238.35 registered in September.

On the housing front it has been announced that Mortgage Applications are up 11.6% on the week compared to a rise of just 5.6% the previous week. This most likely reflects the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 30 year lending rate declining from 4.20% to 4.10% over the same timeframe. The Mortgage Market Index now stands at 413.2, significantly up from the previous reading of 370.4.